


Across The Mirror

by Ashynarr



Category: 2P Hetalia - Fandom, Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Contains personal 2p World Headcanons, Gen, On Hiatus
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-07
Updated: 2016-06-14
Packaged: 2018-03-10 20:59:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 26
Words: 29,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3303266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashynarr/pseuds/Ashynarr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alfred and Tommy met through magic, but stuck together through a mutual kinship borne by more than their mirrored identities. After centuries of friendship, they've reached a comfortable state of affairs between them, but what will happen when Tommy ends up severely injured where Alfred can't help?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Once, there was a mirror.

At first glance, or even a second or third, there was nothing spectacular about it. It stood at just under seven feet tall, the square plane of reflective glass held in place by polished wood. The minimal engravings were merely to give the piece texture, adding to the unimpressive image. No one would be surprised to hear the owner had stuffed it away in an unused corner of his house, hidden under a dust sheet to keep the worst of the grime off.

Though Arthur Kirkland, magician and Nation extraordinaire, had mostly forgotten about it in the handful of centuries since its creation, he'd had fair reason to place it where no one could find it readily.

(Well, no one besides curious, nosy colonies who had never had a chance to see their colonizer's house before, anyways.)

Alfred had reason to feel smug about finding the storage room - it'd been half-blocked off by a table, and the hinges had creaked horribly when he'd cautiously pushed the door open; heck, Arthur probably didn't even remember this room existed, as old and forgetful as he could be.

Of course, that meant that there was plenty of dust available for him to kick up, leaving him coughing until he thought to cover his mouth and nose with his shirt. Thus protected from the worst of it, he started picking his way through the room, looking around at all the old things his older brother had stuffed in here over the centuries.

"Woah…" He murmured as he picked up an old blade, giving it a few swings before almost hitting something under a sheet, causing him to quickly place it back down just in case he accidentally broke something and brought Arthur running. There was no  _way_  he wouldn't be punished for being in here.

Looking back to what he'd almost run into, Alfred slowly started tugging away at the sheet, trying not to unbalance whatever was underneath. Only when it fell away did he notice it was a mirror, something he hadn't expected to find in here.

' _It doesn't seem broken..._ ' The colony wondered, staring at his reflection in the dim lighting available. ' _Wonder why he put it here._ '

He pressed a hand to the glass, feeling nothing but smooth glass under his fingers-

His reflection rippled, matched by the one going down his arm and spine as he flinched back, wide eyed. It took him only a few seconds to realize what it could be -

_Magic._

The Nation in him recoiled, not too fond of such dark arts, but Alfred himself held firm, bolstered by the stories Arthur would tell him before bed some nights. (Not to mention the door was still right there if he needed to run fast, and he could probably close the door and block it with the table again quickly if he had to.)

The ripples settled, everything about the reflection inside seeming to settle back to normal as well.

Except for his own, that is. Instead of his familiar features, the boy now facing him had darker hair, eyes, and skin, very much reminiscent of the Indians he lived with back in the New World. He looked down to himself to see he hadn't changed, his mirror doing the same, before the illusion finally broke when the other boy scowled as they looked back up at each other.

" _Who are you?_ " The boy asked, furthering his resemblance to the Indians by speaking in what Alfred thought might have been Cherokee.

"Who are you?" Alfred echoed in English, wondering whether this counted as dangerous or not.

"I-" The other boy started, only to cut off abruptly, looking to the side with wide eyes at something only he could hear. He scuttled out of sight, leaving Alfred weirded out at having no reflection at all, before the reason for the boy's disappearance walked into view.

The man almost looked like Arthur, if his older brother had had red hair, blue eyes, and a smile that felt just a bit too fake. When the gaze settled onto him, he froze in place, hoping beyond hope that that man couldn't reach him somehow and go through with whatever dangerous threats were in his eyes.

Then Alfred realized the gaze wasn't focused on him at all, but over him. Did the man not see him? He couldn't think of any other explanation that fit.

The red-Arthur bent down, fingering the cloth that had been apparently draped over his mirror as well. His blue eyes roved around the mirror, apparently looking for the Indian boy (or maybe something else?), before shrugging and throwing the cloth back over it, leaving everything dark white before his own reflection abruptly returned.

Alfred released a shuddering breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, rubbing at an arm as he glanced back to the door. That had been way too close, in his mind; he now felt he understood why Arthur would leave something this scary where no one could find it.

...he hoped nothing had happened to that other boy, if he was actually real instead of just some illusion made up by the mirror.

Shaking his head, he grabbed his own sheet and threw it over the mirror as best he could, giving it one last glance before turning and leaving the room. He only remembered at the last second to shut the door and block it before heading back to the warmth and safety of his bedroom. Resolving to put that creepy mirror and the people inside it out of mind for good, he wiped his hands on his shirt, not noticing the small mark on the inside edge of his index finger that hadn't been there that morning.

He'd never know it, but the mirror he'd left behind was as plain and ordinary as any other now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of those fics I'm really looking forward to writing, along with all the other ones. And yeah, I probably shouldn't be starting so many new stories when I have things to fill as it is, but I just sorta go with what my randomizer gives me and it ends up like this. Hopefully fairly soon I'll be updating all my things on a semi-regular basis, even.
> 
> Other chapters should be longer, but this is just a prologue, so I'm not as worried about it.


	2. Letting Off Steam

Alfred hummed in boredom, pencil tapping out a beat against his unfinished paperwork. Normally the task wasn't too bothersome, seeing as most of the stuff that reached his desk was actually fairly important and easy enough to skim through for those annoying buzzwords that always rang alarm bells. However, he could barely focus after nearly a day's worth of babysitting Congress for the third time that week.

Seriously, were they capable of anything other than talking out their asses? He could probably replace the entire fucking thing with a preschool and accomplish more.

With a groan his head hit the desk, causing a few papers to flutter away and settle to the floor. Seriously, why was he still even here?

Oh, right, if he didn't finish these documents before tomorrow's meeting he wouldn't be able to give his presentation. Lovely. More excuses for the others to bitch while he tuned it out in favor of imagining how nice his bed would be afterwords.

A sharp voice and the sound of tapping on glass pulled Alfred from the middle of his daydream about the joys of fifteen hours of continuous sleep. "Hey, porkchop!"

Instead of turning towards the voice, he shook his head to clear it before reaching for his bag, pulling out a small flip phone and going to the first (and only) number on his contact list. His smartphone rang, and he set the flipphone down carefully before grabbing it, turning to the small mirror (' _for that positive vibes thing Kiku told me about!'_ ) hanging on the wall while he answered. "Hey Tommy, it's been a while!"

The non-reflection in the mirror grinned back, leaning back against his own chair. "Too long; meetings are a fuckin' pain in the ass."

"You're telling me," Alfred snorted. "I have one tomorrow, after an entire freaking week of babysitting Congress."

"Dude, that sucks," The brunet lamented. "You sure you can't play hookey and just hide for a few weeks or somethin'?"

"Don't I wish." The Anglo-American shook his head, sighing deeply. "But it's one of those important ones where we share all the important shit in our countries and fight instead of actually accomplishing anything."

"Ah, those ones are fun. I still don't get why you have them, though."

"Officially, it's a way to help insure everyone talks to each other and start working towards world peace and fixing climate change and all that."

The Native American laughed quietly. "And unofficially, it's free babysitting for a day because you're all too busy yelling at each other to annoy your bosses."

Alfred rested a hand on his heart, a wounded look on his face. "How could you say that about such an important thing?"

Tommy replied innocently, " 'Cause it's what you call it every time it comes around?"

"Dang, that could be it," Alfred agreed cheerfully. "Maybe I'll stop complaining when things actually start getting done at them."

"Won't that be the day?" Tommy leaned forward in his seat, frowning now. "Hey, when're you getting back to your place?"

"I can be there in ten minutes," Alfred told his counterpart with a similar frown, glancing the the pile of paperwork on his desk. "Something come up?"

"Maybe," The Native American replied neutrally. "But it's not the sorta talk I wanna have where you are right now."

"Got it; I'll call you back then?"

"Looking forward to it." With a wave farewell, the image rippled, Alfred's normal reflection reasserting itself in the mirror.

The blond American sighed, hanging up on his smartphone and reaching over to flip his other phone closed as well, running a hand through his hair. While it was good to see his probably oddest and closest friend again after several weeks of no contact, it was clear the other had been drained by his own side's meetings and needed someone to vent to.

It only took a minute to throw his things together into his bag, throwing it over his shoulder as he left his White House office and made his way to his car. It was only a few minutes to his DC apartment, his bag and shoes being dumped in the main hall while he made his way to the kitchen to grab two beers.

Thusly equipt for the evening, he entered his bedroom, setting the bottles on his bedside counter before turning to the full length mirror standing in the corner. Carefully tapping on it until the glass started to ripple, he called out, "I'm here; what's up?"

"Well, the good news is that there isn't gonna be a war." Tommy replied cheerfully from his seat against his bed once the image settled, plain brown and white sheets contrasting with Alfred's more colorful ones.

"That's always a good start," Alfred agreed, taking off his suit jacket and throwing it over the pillows before grabbing one of the bottles, settling down in a similar position against his bed to his counterpart. "But I'm guessing there's more to it than that."

Tommy, who already had an empty bottle beside him and a second one half-emptied between his index finger and thumb, made a face. "Because of the recent blight affecting crops up north, I am once again giving up half of my harvest this year to the glorious Canadian Empire so he doesn't have to worry about food shortages."

"Fun," Alfred made his own face, remembering that the other did not have the agricultural powerhouse that was California to fall back on like he did. "Think you'll have enough to last the winter?"

"He doesn't know about the hothouse in the basement you helped me design or its fancy new generator, so I'll be fine. My people… they'll manage." He made a face at the last part, taking a swig of beer after he finished.

"WIsh I could help," Alfred muttered, sipping more casually at his own drink.

"It's fine, I've been through worse." Tommy replied, finishing his second bottle and reaching for a third. "Besides, I'm not exactly the one who's inching closer to political chaos, which is probably a lot worse in the grand scheme of things."

"Please don't remind me about that," The Anglo-American groaned. "I want to believe things  _aren't_  going to get bad enough to spark a revolution."

"Just callin' it like I see it; at least it can't be worse than what Russia's going through right now."

"Which one?" Alfred questioned.

"Does it matter?" Tommy asked back.

"Guess not," Alfred replied after a moment's thought. "I guess some things stay the same no matter where you go."

"Or what universe you're in," The brunet added, leaning back with his eyes closed and allowing the conversation to lapse into a comfortable silence.

Finishing his first bottle and eying the second before deciding he wasn't in the mood for it tonight, Alfred instead settled for idly swinging his empty bottle back and forth by the handle.

"Ya know, even when things suck, it's nice to have someone to talk to about it all."

Tommy cracked an eye open to look at his counterpart. "Yeah, I get ya. Definitely makes life more interesting too."

"Well yeah, that too." Alfred laughed quietly. "Just… thanks, I guess."

The Native American smiled. "You too, porkchop."

~0~0~

" _What're you doing here?" Alfred asked his odd not-reflection, staring at the mirror in his own bedroom slackjawed._

 _The Indian boy scowled, fading bruise just peeking into view from under his loose shirt as he replied in his native tongue,_ "It's my home."

 _The blond recognized the last word at least. "But this is_ my  _home."_

_The other boy shrugged, turning to walk away. Alfred stepped forward, pressing a hand to the cold glass. "Hey, what's your name?"_

_The Indian boy turned back to him, dark gaze questioning._

" _I'm Alfred," The young colony continued, pointing to himself while wondering if the other knew what he was asking._

_After a long, awkward minute the other boy responded._

" _Maska."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wait, could it be? A second chapter? Oh my god, it's a miracle! But seriously, this took a bit longer to write than I expected because I just couldn't think of a way to start off on solid footing and it was annoying the heck out of my all day yesterday. Thankfully I finished before I went to bed, giving me a chance to look it over this morning and make a few corrections before I posted it.
> 
> Next chapter will get us into the actual plot! ...And actually I'm not sure how far into romance this might go or if it's just gonna be like friendship comforts. Eh, what happens happens.


	3. Getting It Over With

Tommy heaved a relieved sigh as he dropped the crate into its place in the cargo plane, wiping some sweat from his face as he stepped back down the ramp into the afternoon sun. The biggest relief from finishing the job was knowing that the ever-so-smug Canadians flying the thing would soon be out of his hair, allowing him to get back to his own matters for however long Alex was content to leave him be.

Assholes. They didn't even realize they weren't nearly as impressive as they thought they were.

(Though that could have been from informed bias - Alfred was a fount of knowledge once you got him into a topic he knew plenty about, which as far as Tommy could tell was just about everything.)

Rubbing at his neck to try and work out some of the tension, he caught a ride with the truck heading back into town, as eager as the rest of his people to finish off this last load so that they could all go home and enjoy cool drinks after the long day. Shutting his eyes as he kicked back, Tommy allowed himself to doze off, unbothered by the bumps and pops as the truck rolled over rocks and gravel.

He was woken up again by a friendly nudge shortly after they hit the paved stone street of the town limits, giving him a chance to yawn and stretch his arms out while they drove past the staggered one-story homes. Even though he'd been living here for several years now, he still raised an eyebrow at the bright pink one that contrasted vividly with the much more muted coloring of the houses beside it as he drove past, shaking his head slightly in exasperation.

(The woman who lived there wasn't one of his, so he honestly had no idea what she was thinking. Apparently, no one else did either, not even her neighbors.

Alfred would probably love it.)

Tommy was the first to hop off the truck as it came to a halt before the side entrance to the storage hall, waving at Leanah, the woman who ran the small restaurant next door. He beamed at the tray of chilled juice she offered to the group, taking a cup before stepping back to allow the others to grab some as well. "You're a gift, Leah!"

"No problem," She smiled back. "Just finish up so that those loonies head back north already!"

Tommy laughed with the others, saluting lazily in reply. "Will do!"

After the refreshing drinks, the group got to work, hauling out the crates of food and dragging them into the truck bed, stacking them two high and three wide in order to fit them all in, even at the expense of sitting space. It worked, however, in getting the last crates into the back, drawing small cheers at the knowledge that they were almost done.

"That everything?" The man closing the storage room door asked.

"Yeah, shut it up," Tommy called back, clambering up the side of the truck to grab a seat on the edge, back pressed against a crate while he held onto one of the support rods for the shade with one hand. In only a few minutes all the other workers had taken their own seats, and the truck was off again, making a wide, slow circle back around towards the airstrip.

The atmosphere was significantly lighter on the return strip, enough that wry conversation took the place of tired sullenness.

"I wonder how the northerners messed up their fields this time," One of the women wondered, snickering with the others. "Think it was another miracle fertilizer?"

"No no, it had to be a new pesticide!" The man next to her replied. "Remember the one from ten years ago? Did nothing but grow more aphids 'cause it was the only thing it didn't kill!"

Tommy snorted with the rest, remembering that incident - though it'd thankfully only affected a few fields, it'd been quite the site, seeing all the crops practically covered in the little green pests. Alex had torn his hair out over that one, earning a gleeful cackle from the American once he'd been safely back home.

To be fair, he'd made his own mistakes, but between his people's historical agricultural knowledge plus Alfred's help, he'd figured out tricks to increasing food production and health without half the issues, even though none of the developments would ever be credited to his name unless he wanted a suspicious Canadian in his business - well, more than he was already, anyways.

(The empire was already annoyed enough at how his protectorate was always one step ahead despite not nearly as many resources to devote into the research necessary. Though that might also have been from the need to sully himself by using Aboriginal-derived tactics, who even knew.)

"Actually," Tommy spoke up, drawing everyone's attention. "I happened to be up there recently on business, so I know what really went down."

Everyone leaned as close as they dare while still holding onto their bumpy ride. He didn't drop his voice to a whisper, lest those on the other side miss what he had to say, though the dramatic tension would have been far more suited to his grin. "Right, so you know they've been messing around with genes and crossbreeding recently, right? So they just released this new plum-apricot hybrid, and were testing it out in a few places around the country, trying to see what growing conditions it liked best."

"I see where this is going," The guy to his other side muttered.

"As it turns out, they tend to do fairly well near the capitol, but that puts them next to those older apricot groves. You remember that bug that went through that place a few decades back?"

"You mean the one that made them rot right off the branches?" The woman who'd brought up the topic in the first place asked, wide eyed.

"The same. Apparently, the eggheads who'd bred them made a mistake by either breeding out the resistance or just using the wrong strain, so not only did these new plants pick up the bug, but it adapted it to the plum genes as well, sending it at  _those_  old fields as well, which they weren't prepared for at all."

"Ohhhhh," The rest of them winced in sympathy, though it was muted since the plague had never hit this far south, or even all that far into American lands in general.

"You'd think they'd learn by the fifth time," Someone complained. "We've known not to mix new and old crops for centuries, and they still haven't picked up on that."

"What do you expect from loonies?" Tommy asked rhetorically, grinning at the chuckles from the others.

The conversation dropped off soon after, the plane having just come into view. As good of a mood as everyone was in, no one wanted it ruined by picking a fight with the Canadians right before they left, so they instead pushed themselves to finish the unloading just a bit faster, exchanging grins as the last crate was shoved into place on the plane.

Tommy was the last one off the plane, having had to go over the checklist with the pilot to make sure everything that needed to be there was there. After much hemming and hawing and a few suspicious looks - he finally signed off on it, turning to his copilot to go over the route home.

Stepping down the ramp, he turned to watch it raised, sealing tight to the rest of the outer frame. He stepped back a bit as the engines slowly whirled to life, the propellers spinning up until it was impossible to see the individual blades. As the backwind started to kick up dirt from the strip, he turned to leave, eager to get home now that they were finally leavi-

_-Click. Rumble.-_

_-the world was suddenly aflame and his ears were ringing and when did he end up on the ground-_

-by the time his head had cleared from the shockwave enough to think, his body was screaming at him from the damage inflicted to it, the world around him littered with burning metal shrapnel that, he realized as he tried to move, was also embedded in  _him_.

He could feel the screams and fear of his people - fuck, they'd also been near the explosion, and unlike him didn't have extra leases on life. Forcing himself up despite the pain, he stumbled his way over to the flame-charred truck, dropping down next to one of the women who had taken a greater blunt of the blast, holding her close as she whimpered in pain.

"Please," She mouthed painfully, blind eyes moist with bloody tears.

"I'm sorry," Tommy choked out, realizing she wasn't going to make it through the next few minutes, much less to when the medics finally arrived. With a gentle press her neck cracked, allowing her a merciful death. Choking out a sob, he looked around blindly, seeing the others were rallying together and helping those wounded to their feet and away from the flames and risk of further explosions from the wreckage or the truck.

Shit, he was so tired, and he couldn't risk being found like this-

Blindly, he reached out, barely resisting the urge to vomit from the abrupt transition to his bedroom. The action had taken far more from him than he'd expected, because the last thing he remembered was the frantic screaming of his name as his head hit the ground.

~0~0~0~

" _Wait, so you're America?" Alfred frowned. "But I thought you guys were a bunch of tribes and stuff."_

" _We are," Maska shook his head. "But with the white people moving in, we've been unifying against them, and that made me appear."_

" _We aren't taking up that much space, though," The blond shook his head. "And we trade a lot and stuff, right?"_

" _Maybe your people do," The Native child grouced. "The Europeans here don't care about us at all unless we know something useful to them. They just dump all their unwanted people here and leave us to deal with them."_

" _...yeah, I know how you feel a bit." Alfred lamented. "Some of the Europeans here do that to me, too."_

_Maska looked upon him pityingly. "You don't understand at all."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops, did I whiplash the mood there? Ahahaha this chapter wasn't just worldbuilding, you know – I was planning on making it all a bit slow so that the last bit would freak you guys out, eheh.
> 
> This isn't the last we'll be seeing of the 2p world, though – it's still very much necessary to the overall plot even if it might not seem like it right off the bat. Or maybe it will, hmm.


	4. Thoroughfare

Alfred hummed cheerfully as he opened the front door to his house, his suitcase from his two week vacation to Arizona dumped to the side of the front hall as he kicked off his shoes and shut the door behind him. After the pain of the last world meeting, the trip out west had been more than welcome, especially since he hadn't seen or even really spoken to Teresa or her sister since the last State meeting.

(The twins had, in full glee, made sure to direct him to all the best places to relax they could think of, which he also suspected were purposefully on the more expensive side of things. They'd really taken after Bella, hadn't they?)

"I'm back!" He called out as he wandered into the living room, picking up the snail mail that'd grown into a small pile while he was gone. Throwing the majority of it that was only junk into the trash, he looked over the last two letters; the first was a reminder of the joint November birthday celebration for several of the States, while the second was the formal invitation from Austria for the annual New Years' celebration.

Fun. Oh,  _wait._

Setting the letters to the side, he made his way up to his bedroom, pulling out his work and business phone, shooting off a mass text to his States assuring that the party would go as planned before pulling up his unopened emails, sighing at the several dozen messages waiting for him.

"Updates, nothing happened, nothing happened, meeting on Saturday with Yao?" He scowled, replying to that message with the reminder that that was his day off with his States and that if he wanted to talk he could push it to either the following week or at lunch the day before.

(The latter option was his greater hope, since that would be an excellent excuse to getting out of at least two other Friday responsibilities.)

Slowly trudging through the rest of the messages, he shot off the last email to Arthur saying he'd be open to discussing whatever trade issue he had over Skype next week, grinning at the knowledge that the other hated using the program but, of course, would if it meant dealing with the issue sooner rather than later.

God, sometimes he enjoyed employing a bit of his brother's passhole tendencies.

Setting his phone to the side with a groan, he stretched his arms out and rolled them around a bit, a glint in the corner of his eye reminding him that he had one more thing to check in on before he settled into an awesome gaming session with Tony and whichever States were online.

"Hey, Tommy?" He asked as he tapped on the mirror, watching one of the taps cause a small ripple in the glass. "You there?"

His reflection wavered before settling back to normal. He frowned, tapping again. "Tommy?"

Huh. Maybe he was out or something. Hadn't he mentioned something about sending food north? Was that still happening?

Alfred sighed as he stepped back, figuring he'd just try later. It wasn't like their schedules always matched up perfectly, so it was silly to wait around hoping the other would conveniently be around just because he happened to be available to chat.

Shaking his head, he turned to leave, pausing as the heard the thump of something hitting the ground hard. That hadn't come from Tony's room or from downstairs-

He turned back to the mirror, seeing it had in fact settled into reflecting something other than his bedroom. "Tommy?"

When no snarky brunet appeared in his field of view, he glanced down and rapidly paled. "Tommy!"

Whatever awareness remained in his oldest friend was lost about then, the other man's head hitting the floor right as Alfred almost slammed into the mirror, only at the last second remembering that breaking the glass (again) would not help at all in this instance.

"Holy shit," The blonde muttered, swallowing as he quickly catalogued all the shrapnel and burnt clothing and skin he could make out from his spot leaning against the cold glass, sinking to his knees. " _Holy shit._ "

He'd seen war wounds this bad before, but the point was that they happened during war - Tommy had said himself that no one was gearing up for conflict, and that couldn't have changed so suddenly, could it?

(He really, desperately hoped that this was just an accident… a very, very nasty accident.)

The worst part was that there was  _nothing he could do_  - though the glass seemed thin, the true distance between them was enormous, if not impossible to measure through normal means. Even if he left now, he'd have to live with the mental images of Tommy bleeding out on the floor, a slow, painful death that would only be prolonged by the debris still embedded in him.

"Fuck," Alfred whispered, hands pressed against the glass curling into fists, his head coming to rest against the mirror as he shut his eyes against the tears threatening to fall, just wishing that he could  _do something_ -

The glass he was pressing against rippled, slowly at first but quickly growing more violent, enough so that he could feel them batter against his forehead and hands. Drawn from his thoughts, Alfred made to push away so he could see what was happening-

Only to have to stop himself as he abruptly fell forward instead, a chill going through him as he took a minute to realize he'd just passed  _through_  the glass. What even-

Alfred's gaze snapped back up to Tommy, who seemed so much closer now, his body trembling from either his own pain or from the shock of his people at whatever had happened. Shoving himself up to his feet and all the way through, he knelt down next to his friend, wincing at the up close look at the wounds.

"Stay with me, Tommy," He muttered, thinking fast and realizing he had no clue what medical supplies the other had or even where they were kept here-

but Alfred knew where all of those were in his own house. Glancing between the room he was in and the mirror, he gathered up his friend and carefully nudged at the glass again, which was still giving way to the pressure. Taking another breath, he stepped through again, ignoring the shudder that went through both of them as he laid Tommy down on his bed, rushing out the door and past a confused alien as he slammed into the bathroom, grabbing bandages, aloe, and a damp washcloth before running back.

The blond ignored his alien friend as he dumped the stuff at the foot of the bed, carefully stripping away the half-burnt clothing before working his way down, picking out all the bits of metal and wood and rock he could find. Once that was done, he took the cloth to the other's body, trying to clean up the worst of the wounds and burns before tossing it to the side.

Even more carefully, he rubbed aloe into whatever spots were burnt worst, turning Tommy over to get his back before grabbing the bandages and wrapping them to allow it to do its work.

Only once the task was done did Alfred sit back, watching over his friend and hoping it'd be enough to help him recover soon.

~0~0~

" _Maska?" Alfred asked, staring wide eyed at the Native boy who'd shown up bruised and bloody, nursing his wounds with the occasional wince. "What happened?"_

" _Attacked," The Native boy replied raspily, teeth clenched. "The northerners."_

" _Wasn't there a treaty, though?" The blond asked, only to wince at the sharp look he got from the other at that._

" _Treaties," He hissed. "They never care about the treaties, just themselves. I should have known better than to trust them."_

_Alfred bit his lip, resting a hand against the glass. "I-"_

" _I_ _ **hate**_   _white people. You're all nothing but monsters."_

_The European child wanted to protest at that, claiming that most of them would never do such a thing, but the words died on his lips as he noticed the frustrated tears in the other boy's eyes. His mouth slowly shut without a word escaping, his eyes cast downwards as he tried to think of something to say._

" _...I'm sorry."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're actually getting into the main part of the story! Hoorah! And yeah, I know death isn't a permanent thing for Nations, but I can't imagine that dying is any less painful or stressful to deal with that it would be for a human, even if they'll just wake up later.
> 
> Also poor Alfred, just got relaxed after a vacation and this happens. :c


	5. Waking Up To

Consciousness returned in fits and starts, the pain thrumming through Tommy's nerves distant enough to let him slide back into sleep almost as soon as he emerged from it. Sometimes he even woke up enough to pick up fragments of conversation and activity - once, the low murmur of voices nearby; another, running water and a clatter; a third, quiet humming while something cool was gently rubbed into an arm.

The first time he properly awoke, he was staring at the ceiling, taking a long moment to realize it wasn't his own. his fists wrapped around soft sheets, the jab of pain at the movement reminding him that he'd been injured - when? ...four days ago, according to his internal clock. More than long enough for someone to find him and-

...well, that part he wasn't sure of yet. This wasn't Alex's house; he'd been there often enough to recognize the place, and this wasn't it.

Tommy closed his eyes, taking deep, even breaths and forcing down panic in favor of forcing his still sluggish mind to work. It didn't feel like a kidnapping - he figured anyone who'd try would probably know he was a Nation and so not bother with making him comfortable or even dealing with his wounds - and they had, which he knew because his body wasn't stiff and his mouth didn't taste like dust. Was it one of his people? Why would they have been in his house?

Maybe he should actually try looking around and not just speculating based on someone's ceiling. Damn, that explosion had really rattled his brains if he was this slow on the uptake.

His eyes opened again as he slowly tested how much he could move - the twitches of his joints and muscles ached, but there didn't seem to be anything holding him in place besides the thick sheets over him, which couldn't honestly be called much of an obstruction even in his current state of recovery. Right, he could do this, just push up on his elbows and-

"Fuckin' shit fuck goddamn-" He swore through a sharp exhale, his arms unhappy with the movement as he shifted back, allowing his head to rest against the head of the bed while his back pressed into the pillows. At least it was something, even if he'd rather…

"...what the hell?" Tommy blinked once, then twice; the doll - no, that thing was freaking  _alive_  - did not copy the motion, just staring back at him with its creepy red eyes and blank face from its seat on the far side of the room near the door.

It said something, or maybe just made noise, he couldn't even tell, and pushed itself off the chair, leaving behind the book it'd been reading as it opened and closed the door behind it. He couldn't make out the title from here, and the surreality of the moment was enough to leave him staring after the creature until he could make out the heavy thumps of someone running down the hall, leaving him tense all over again.

Then the door cracked open, much more hesitantly than he'd expect for someone who'd basically sprinted to it, and the surreality returned. "...Alfred?"

The Euro-American grinned, ducking into the room and shutting the door behind him. "Hey, Tommy. You feeling alright?"

"Like I've managed to live through an explosion," Tommy replied, wondering if he was still asleep and dreaming all this up. "How-"

"I saw you collapse from your injuries," Alfred grimaced, gaze flicking over to the large mirror to the side of the bed. "I wanted to do something, anything, even though I knew- or I guess thought - I couldn't, and the mirror did - something, I don't know - and I was able to come through and get you and bring you back here so I could clean you up and, well, yeah. I haven't been able to get it to work again, so…"

The Native American man mulled over that, trying to push down the instinctive panic at the idea of not being able to get back to his people and find out what went wrong. "Are you sure you can't make it work?"

"I was pretty desperate at the time," Alfred replied after a bit. "That might have done something. I honestly don't know that much about magic as it is, and it's not like I can just go up to Arthur or Ginny or whoever else and ask how to travel between universes whenever you want."

Tommy bit his lip. "So if I want it bad enough, it'll let me through?"

The blond nodded. "Maybe; I mean I don't see why it shouldn't? But I think you should wait until you can stand on your own before giving it a try - it drained me something fierce after the panic wore off."

Tommy wasn't eager to wait, because he had to know what happened, and his senses were muddled either from the explosion or from something else so he couldn't tell through his normal methods, but Alfred looked so concerned that he conceded the point with a sigh. "Alright, I'll wait."

The other man gave him a thankful grin infectious enough to bring a weaker copy to Tommy's own, right before the brunet's stomach rumbled in displeasure at being ignored for so long. "I'll get you some food, kay?"

"Mmm," Was all the reply Tommy gave, exhaling as his friend left the room. He had a lot to think on now, and being on his own allowed him the chance to go over it on his own terms.

He'd survived the point blank explosion thanks to being rescued in time. Okay.

He was in Alfred's world now while he was healing up. Okay.

He could, theoretically, get back to his own once he'd recovered. Okay.

He had, for the first time, met Alfred face to face without anything between them.

Okay.

Tommy took another deep breath, wrapping his arms around himself.

He'd imagined, once or twice, what it might be like to see Alfred and the world he described for himself, but it had never been more than a passing thought, daydreams for a slow afternoon. The reality of it hadn't really sunk in yet, probably because he was tired, hungry, aching, and stuck in this bed for at least another couple of days, not to mention he was too far from his people to do anything even if he could tell how they were doing.

Fuck, everything was confusing and all he wanted was for it all to be a nasty dream he'd wake up from soon.

(...even if that meant never seeing Alfred like this - real flesh and bones and concern over him of all people.)

~0~0~

" _What's that?"_

_Alfred looked up from his pamphlet, shifting on his feet as Maska stared at him quizzically. "Just some things I got in town."_

_The other boy frowned, glancing between the papers and Alfred several times. "What about?"_

_The blond boy almost shrugged it off as nothing, only to pause at the genuine curiosity and, after a few seconds, sigh in defeat. "Some of my people are angry with Arthur and his king, because of all the taxes and the trade blocks and how they aren't even giving us a representative for matters concerning us. They're wondering… well, they want to know why we have to listen to someone who doesn't care about our wellbeing."_

_Maska caught on fast, eyes widening to almost comic levels. "Your people are rebelling?"_

" _Not yet," Alfred backtracked quickly. "Just upset; they really want the king to at least give them an audience to air their issues, but they haven't gotten anything yet, so…"_

_The other boy didn't look like he bought it, but he let the subject drop, something which Alfred was thankful for, because even he wasn't sure how to feel about it all._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Making progress, making progress... also, theories and answers and a lot of questions neither of them can answer. Where things will go from here, even I'm not sure, because I only plot like three or four chapters ahead at most after too many derailings of complete story outlines.
> 
> Next chapter will be a bit of 2p world stuff hopefully, and I'll be able to introduce Alex in his natural environment for... probably the first time in any work I have. Huh. And that one drabble doesn't count so yeah.


	6. Ash And Dust

Just what he fucking needed right now.

Alex felt another wave of his now constant headache come around as he looked over the scattered reports that had started trickling in hours after the explosion that had sent shockwaves as far north as his own country. They weren't even close to assessing the total damages done so far, but even what initial guesses were being lobbed around were enough to grit his teeth.

One valuable cargo plane, completely loaded with food bound northward, one supply truck, and at least half a dozen civilian casualties, including two of his own. If that explosion had happened when it landed instead…

So far, no one could find evidence of sabotage or malicious intent, but with things as tense as they were right now, neither he nor his boss wanted to risk it happening again, leaving his entire air fleet grounded while they were combed for similar traps or construction flaws. It would lag his economy for weeks at the least, something he couldn't afford when China seemed to be on the verge of something big.

One of his first instincts had in fact been foul play from the Chinese - God fucking knew that Zhang Jun wasn't above it on occasion - but two things made him hesitate on immediate blame. Firstly, he'd just come back from a meeting with his ideological opponent, the entire goal of which was to ease some tensions after the recent spats in the middle-east.

Second, Zhang and his people preferred quiet deeds, the sort that one would generally just chalk up to strings of bad luck unless one knew the signs to look for, which made something as flashy and attention grabbing as an explosion very much uncharacteristic. Of course, it could be a double bluff, trying to ward off suspicion by not playing to their usual code, but he wasn't going to go down that route unless he had enough evidence to directly indict them.

Evidence that would likely require him to go down south himself. Great.

Hopefully Tommy would be there at least to let him know more about what happened. Wasn't he living in the town that it happened in…?

Alex felt a twinge of concern, hoping that that part was just a coincidence and not part of the growing pile of evidence for darker things at play now. Even if he'd been hurt, it wasn't like he'd be dead, so there wasn't any reason to get worked up about it.

He threw the papers back onto the desk abruptly, shoving himself away from his desk so he could stand up and leave his office as quickly as possible. He wasn't going to get anything done just waiting around here, so he might as well take matters into his own hands.

"Alexander."

The Nation stopped abruptly, gaze sliding to the side at he finally took note of the person he had just about blown past. "Sir."

"You're leaving early today," His boss replied, though he already seemed to have a good idea of why before Alex responded.

"Someone who can't be taken out by whatever traps might still be there needs to go down and investigate," Alex's fingers twitched. "Plus America was there; I'm the only one who can get a full report from him safely."

His boss nodded, hands clasped behind his back. "Go then, and come straight back to me when you've gotten what you can."

"Yes sir," Alex nodded, ready to turn back to his walk before he noticed his boss raise a hand in warning.

"If this is in fact something other than an accident, make sure no one else knows - bury the information if you have to." The man frowned, stress marring his face. "We cannot afford to rush into conflict so soon after defusing our last one. We need time to plan if necessary, which we can't do if my council is screaming for the heads of the Chinese."

"Understood sir," The Canadian nodded, waiting for any further issues or orders before bowing his head and making a hasty retreat.

This was really the last thing he wanted to be dealing with right now, but what other course of action did he have?

Hopefully Tommy would at least make it somewhat easier to deal with…

~0~0~

The wreckage was still smoldering as he approached it, the soldiers who had corralled the area off saluting sharply as he stormed past, not daring to get in his way when he was like this.

Tommy had not been waiting for him when he'd arrived, something he'd half expected if the man had been anywhere near the explosion - he was probably still heavily wounded, if not recovering from death, meaning Alex would just have to go to him to get information after he was done here.

Briefly he lamented the absolute waste of food, glancing at the charred remains of the crates scattered around the area as he came to a stop besides the shrapnel skeleton of what had once been a massive flying machine. The metal was still being tested for heat stress after the emergency teams had drenched it with as much water as they could manage with one helicopter at hand, and the process simply couldn't be speeded up for fear of some part of it collapsing underfoot and stranding or killing whoever was stupid enough to try it first.

Seeing as he didn't want to explain why that wouldn't be an issue for him, that left a personal combing of the wreckage unmanageable for at least another day. None of the people here had even been present at ground zero during the incident, which meant he had to take the truck all the way back to town to interview the people who had been there and survived.

(The bodies of those who hadn't had yet to be buried, and he'd grimaced at the sight - even if he'd seen such carnage before, there was something fundamentally disturbing about how twisted and scarred it left the corpses that he refused to think about for long.)

Their leads were only moderately more helpful than those working on the wreckage - one of them recalled hearing a click before the plane had gone up, while another recalled the explosion seemed to have started somewhere in the front of the cargo hold, which matched with the blast distribution of the shrapnel that he'd seen.

With two hours spent on that exhausting task, he finally made his way around to what he recalled was Tommy's current residence, the small eagle statuette in the front yard confirmation that he'd remembered correctly even as he pounded on the door.

"Tommy!" He waited ten seconds, knocking again. "Answer the door!"

When he got no sort of reply, he exhaled sharply, deciding the other could pay for a new damned lock as he broke the front door open and stepped inside. It was deathly quiet, once again reminding him that if his protectorate had ended up dead from the incident he might not actually be back yet, forcing him to bite back an annoyed sigh.

"Tommy, you'd better be in here…" He swore as he pushed open the bedroom door, pausing as he took in the scene.

There was dried blood stained into the floor, along with a few shards of glass and metal littered around where the body had likely been. Tommy had definitely returned here, and possibly succumb to his wounds right there, but where was he, then? There was no way the other would be up and about on his own if that were… the…

Alex stepped into the room and bent down carefully alongside the stains, frowning deeply as he examined the blood more closely. There - it looked like he'd rolled onto his side briefly, or perhaps been rolled there, and there were a few half-prints of shoes nearby that disappeared near that large mirror of Tommy's - possibly the person who'd grabbed the body had noticed and taken off his shoes so as to avoid leaving a trail to follow.

Alex exhaled through grit teeth. If he was looking for proof, he'd just gotten it.

~0~0~

" _You're leaving?"_

_Alfred clutched his musket close, unable to look the other boy in the eyes, because he know he'd lose what willpower he'd mustered so far to go through with this. "I can't keep letting him do this to me; not without at least making a statement."_

" _He's an empire, Alfred, and you're a colony! You don't-"_

" _I can't just let him keep treating me like I'm only good for money!" The blond snapped, exhaustion pushed to the side in a short burst of anger. "I know it'll be hard, and maybe it won't work, but I have to do something…"_

_Maska said nothing, just staring back with a muddled expression that Alfred eventually made out to be concern._

" _...I'll try to come back when I can, to let you know how things are going. If I don't…"_

_The other boy nodded in understanding, pressing a hand to his side of the mirror and drawing Alfred to do the same._

_He could almost image he felt a hint of warmth there underneath the mirror._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Behold, the wild 2p Canadian in his natural habitat! Or in other words, the first part of my master plan to sneak in my worldview of the 2p universe without being obnoxious about it. Trust, me, there'll be plenty happening here while I'm also working with Alfred and Tommy on our side, so thing'll bounce around depending.
> 
> Again, though I know most people won't understand what I'm going for here, I'm trying to base my ideas of the 2p universe around what I think the Mirror!verse in Star Trek (you know, bearded Spock, Terran Empire, super 'evil' side of things?) was like during the 'modern' era, and things sort of evolved from there. More details will come around, so if things seem vague, I'll try to clear them up if you ask about them.


	7. Family Matters

"You know, you could just wait for him to call back like most people," Ginny side-eyed her temporary companion as they stopped in front of the old colonial house. "You said yourself it's only been a week - let him have his break."

"This isn't something I can afford to put off for any longer," Arthur shook his head, dutifully ignoring the look as he got out of her car. "And he didn't even give warning he'd be out of his office for so long."

"Things do come up, you know," The State replied dryly, getting out as well.

What those things were, specifically, she didn't actually know - Alfred had been rather vague when she'd called in, asking why he was still hanging around in his old house instead of coming over to help her plan out the November party that was coming up this weekend. She had, in fact, been planning to come by the next day if fate (and Arthur Kirkland) hadn't intervened.

(If it'd been anyone else, she would have expressed her own concern, but she'd never really lost that lingering resentment of the man who'd forced her to grow up too fast and raise the personification of her country herself while ignoring her efforts anyways.)

The front door opened almost the moment their feet hit the step, Alfred looking a bit bedraggled but otherwise unharmed. His grin grit just enough for her to realize he really did not want to see them right now, but his tone held none of the attitude she'd expect of such as he invited them inside, shutting the door behind them and inviting them to sit along with him.

"You guys want anything? I've sorta been busy so I might have to wash before I cook…" Alfred rubbed at his next, glancing between them carefully.

"I've been trying to reach you all week," Arthur replied, exasperated. "You were due back six days ago and I had some things that required your input before the next meeting."

"Ah, yeah, totes sorry about that," The American replied sheepishly. "Tony needed my help with some stuff, so I sorta got sidetracked and lost track of time."

"Oh really?" The Brit asked, eyebrow raised. "What sort of project? Another game, perhaps?"

"What? No," Alfred shook his head, looking annoyed now. "He's got a new idea for how our whole Nation-Walking abilities work so he needed someone who could, y'know, actually manage a few hundred miles without getting tired. Didn't think it'd take as long as it has, though, so I might have to put it off for a bit, so yeah…"

Ginny raised her own eyebrow at that - she could see the way his gaze slipped to her when he explained that, practically begging for her to not contradict him. He knew that she knew that he hadn't wandered far from this house, but apparently he didn't want Arthur to think anything was off. "Was that what you were doing? I was wondering why you were hopping all over…"

Arthur scoffed and rolled his eyes, muttering about lazy Nations and skewed priorities while her Nation flashed her a grin. "Sorry, dude, what'd you want to talk about again?"

At least she was going to get an explanation out of this; if it left that Brit in the dark and got him to leave early, all the better.

~0~0~

"See you at the meeting, Artie!" Alfred waved Arthur off later the following morning, Ginny standing alongside him as the Brit waved farewell before ducking into his private jet to get a ride back over to his country. It'd been a long day and night of hosting him, but now that he was gone both of them could relax.

"So, you've been helping Tony, hmm?" Ginny asked, glancing to him as they started Walking their way back towards Alfred's place, the slow pace eating up the miles easily.

"Well, I have been," He agreed easily. "He found a new line of study, and I was helping out."

"And you know I know that's not the full story," She shot back.

Alfred gave her a long, weary look, revealing the bags under his eyes she hadn't caught earlier. "It's a long story, believe me, and I figure you might want proof, so…"

Ginny sighed and nodded. "I'm holding you to that, then."

They came to a stop inside his living room, Alfred pausing to close his eyes and exhale slowly, collecting in thoughts while his State waited as patiently as she could for him to decide on how to start.

"Do you remember that time I went with Arthur to his place as a kid?" He started, giving her pause as she thought back to the incident.

"The mid-1600s, wasn't it?" She asked, receiving an affirmative nod in reply.

"Well, while I was there, I sorta slipped away from him for a few hours and started exploring his house - and he had a ton of old rooms he never visited, so for me it was this huge adventure." Alfred smiled at the memory. "I found this one room blocked off by an old table, and he probably hadn't been in there for at least a century with how dusty and out of the way it was. Of course, that meant there had to be cool treasures in there, right?"

"Trust me, I remember your treasure-hunting days," Ginny replied wryly - she had, after all, chided him many times for getting himself into danger trying to replicate Arthur's wild tales on the sea, many of which she doubted had actually happened.

Alfred laughed softly. "Yeah, those were the days, weren't they? Well, this room he probably had really good reason to block off, because he had some dangerous stuff in there - swords, spellbooks, old bottles and stuff like that."

He hesitated, taking a breath before continuing. "And a mirror."

"A mirror?" Her eyebrow raised, recalling the one he kept in his bedroom.

"Yeah, a mirror." Alfred started making his way upstairs, Ginny following as he continued. "It wasn't really all that impressive looking, so I didn't think it could be dangerous. Then I touched it."

"Was it enchanted?" She caught on fast, but then again, she'd been the one taught some of Arthur's magic before Alfred had appeared and drawn all of his attention away from her.

"It started rippling, so I backed up in case I needed to run. When the image settled, I wasn't staring at my own reflection anymore." He settled a hand on his bedroom door, turning to her with a serious expression. "Do you believe in the multiverse?"

"...I couldn't say one way or the other; that's more Isabel's area." Ginny paused and gave his charge an equally serious look. "You're about to prove her right, aren't you?"

Alfred grinned, pushed down on the handle, and opened the door.

~0~0~

" _Hey, Alfred?"_

" _Huh?" The blond looked up from where he was bandaging his wounds, peering into the old mirror he'd found inside one of the abandoned houses near the last battle._

" _Who was the woman who was just with you?" The Native boy asked, glancing towards the doorway said woman had just left through to try and scrounge for food._

" _Oh, that's Ginny; she's sorta the person who raised me when Arthur wasn't around…" Alfred smiled softly, glancing back out the doorway. "I owe her a lot, really."_

" _...I had someone like that," His friend replied after a bit, looking down and away. "When I first came around, one of the smaller Nations looked after me. She kept me fed and clothed and let me stay in her home."_

" _What happened to her?" The Euro-American asked._

" _What else? England found us."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I blame Kait for getting me to start using our State OCs as recurring characters in my other fics, but to be fair they DO make sense as characters (read: Hima and Japan's Prefectures being canon), and Alfred WOULD interact with them a lot so yeah. If it wasn't blatantly obvious, Ginny is Virginia (and Isabel is California obv), so yeah she's sort of his mom/big sister figure and just knows instinctively when he's not telling her everything.


	8. Planning Stage

"Are you sure she'll be able to find something?"

Alfred glanced up from his lunch, frowning at the question. "To be honest? No. But if there's a chance one of the books Arthur handed off to her has anything on it at all, I wanna cover it, just to be safe."

Tommy raised a brow, having finished off his plate already (healing severe injuries did tend to encourage the appetite, after all). "I thought you'd ask your England, since you get along with him and it was his magic."

Alfred made a face. "If it were any other scenario I might've, but this is something I really don't want him finding out about, and not just because he'll ream me for messing about with old magic as a kid and then not bother to mention it for a few centuries. You saw how Ginny got after she got over her initial reaction to having all this dumped on her - he'll be way worse."

The Native American tilted his head, frowning. "Still not seeing the issue here."

The blond sighed, trying to think of a way to explain his nebulous worries. "Would you tell your England or Canada what happened after you got home?"

"That's completely different," Tommy injected, only to pause when Alfred held up a hand.

"How are you going to explain your disappearance?" He asked, looking even more tired than before. "You saw how Arthur got when I was behind by a week, and I know my side's generally a lot more scheduled than yours, but your side's Canada is probably gonna be at least expecting you to investigate and report in, right?"

"...fuck," The brunet uttered, realizing that was a very likely scenario. "I can probably write it off as following a lead if I get back in the next week, but longer than that is gonna be tricky."

Alfred nodded in understanding. "The point is that if I start bringing others in, even if I can trust them, they're gonna want to know more because, hey look, relatively easy access to the multiverse right here, no technology required!"

The concept clicked for Tommy. "You can keep it quiet by sticking to your States who'll know better than to go sniffing into stuff if you tell them no."

"For the most part yeah," Alfred nodded. "Though I'm probably only gonna bug Ginny about all this unless she and I both feel we need more help. Which means I can't exactly go up and introduce you to them all right now."

"...wait, didn't she mention a party? Is that what this is about?" Tommy gave Alfred a mildly disbelieving look.

"No, it sorta just came to mind while I was mentioning her and the others," Alfred admitted with a light flush. "Most of my states have at least passing knowledge of all the Native personifications left, so while I could possibly wave you off as one of them to the other Nations, except maybe Mattie or Maria, the States'll know something's up fast and, well…"

He waved a hand out to the side, making a face. "I love all of them, really, but some of them are huge gossips, and even if I tell them to keep quiet, it'll leak sooner or later at the wrong time, and then I'll have all the others wanting in on it and just-"

Tommy reached over to pat Alfred's hands sympathetically after they lightly slapped against the table in frustration. "So you're leaving me on my own for a day? I think I can manage that, but thanks for the heads up at least."

"Ah," Alfred shifted in his seat, looking resigned. "It's not just that. Remember how I'm the world superpower and everything?"

The Native American was about to snark out a witty line about how he probably couldn't forget when his blond counterpart complained every week like clockwork, but then stopped to think about the other superpower he knew well and exhaled sharply. "I'm not interested in longterm house arrest, just so you know."

"I know that!" Alfred sighed heavily, shaking his head. "And I'm not asking you to stay here for however long it's gonna be, but I need a few days to sorta set up an explanation for why you're hanging around that everyone'll buy. It'll probably involve bribing a few States - which is why I need the time with Ginny to talk about it and set up - but once that's done I can probably let you come along with me on stuff so that you can roam while I'm stuck doing work."

Tommy allowed himself to think over all of that, slowly starting to smile as the full implications set in. With a laugh he muttered, "Ya know, when I mentioned I'd like to see your place sometime I was being rhetoric."

Alfred laughed as well, not an unpleasant sound in the least. "Serendipity, I guess."

The Native man leaned forward, much more invested and energetic now that he had an out of lying in bed recovering. "So what're our travel plans, then?"

Alfred held up a finger, getting up from his seat long enough to grab a pen and pencil before returning and starting to jot stuff down. "Given the rest of this week through Saturday to set stuff up, we can probably head out to DC to wander a bit on Sunday, then deal with the build-up of paperwork and shit from people taking Thanksgiving week off…"

He paused, humming thoughtfully as he looked to Tommy. "I just realized you might be here for Thanksgiving. That's gonna be interesting depending on if you join us or not… dang, that might change plans too."

Tommy huffed, amused at Alfred's frantic reworking of plans in his head if the muttering was anything to go by. "Why not just talk to Ginny about it? Since she's your partner in crime and all that, she'll probably have a good idea of how to make it work without world-shattering consequences."

"...true." Alfred sighed, looking back up to his friend with a smile after a moment. "When did you become the voice of reason in all this?"

"I've always been the voice of reason," Tommy replied instantly, smiling back. "You're just an idiot who never listens to me."

"Lies! I listen sometimes!"

The two shared a laugh, relaxing with it as they let go of the rest of their worries for the moment.

~0~0~

_“You got France to help you?” Chetan asked, wide eyed. “How?”_

_“He really doesn’t like England,” Alfred admitted, muddy and bruised and tired as he slumped besides the mirror. “And I overheard he doesn’t think I’ll last long on my own anyways, so when - if I fail he’ll just scoop me up himself to give a final snub to him.”_

_“And you’re trusting him?” The Native boy asked._

_“I don’t have a choice; I need the money and training, and he was able to get his friend Prussia to help me learn how to fight properly.”_

_“That still doesn’t explain why you’re trusting Europeans to help you when they’re nothing but trouble.”_

_“I’m only allying with him for the war - after that I plan on keeping to myself. I’m tired of Europe’s games dragging my people down with them.”_

_“I hope you know what you’re doing.”_

_ Alfred wished he did too. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter turned out a lot better than I was expecting, honestly, though as always its nudged my direction for this fic slightly. And yeah, I know some of you aren't happy I'm using States, but I gave my explanation through Alfred so I hope that's enough to satisfy you. If not... eh, I tried.
> 
> Also I am juuuuuuuuuuuuuust starting to nudge other things into place, but it might take a while for things to pan out depending on how it writes itself in.
> 
> Edit 6/28/15: Forgot flashback scene so added it in!


	9. A Drop Of Sense

As it was for every month that had more than one birthday, Virginia's house was filled with the cheerful banter of most of the States, the warm atmosphere batting away the evening chill seeping in from outside. The hostess for the day was in the kitchen, cleaning up after the mess that was baking enough sweets of various kinds and amounts to satisfy the varied tastes of everyone there.

Helping her was Alfred, who had for the majority of the party been his normally cheerful self only to slowly let that fade as he quietly cleaned out one of the pans. Having raised him practically on her own, Ginny liked to think she could read him easily, and there was only one thing she could really think of off the top of her head that could be bothering him right now.

"Did something happen to your friend?" She asked him, mindful of their surroundings.

"Huh?" He looked up from his task and blinked at her, registering the meaning after a few seconds. "Oh no, he's fine - mostly healed up, actually, though his left arm's still a bit stiff."

"Then what's bothering you?"

Alfred started to speak, but stopped, taking a second to think before continuing. "He's been getting restless, and I don't wanna keep him locked up in the house indefinitely while we try and figure out what we need to get him back home."

"I thought you were trying to keep people from learning about him, though," She raised an eyebrow in question.

He sighed, setting the pot down before looking back to her. "I know that, and I'm still not interested in just blindly announcing everything to the world, but I do want to give him a chance to wander around while I'm working. I'm having trouble figuring out who I could ask to help me bluff him as a Native personification…"

Ginny bit her lip, thinking over the others herself and writing off those she already knew would be harder to trust - Isabel and Ben were right out, gossips that they were, and most of the Eastern tribes had actually come into direct contact with the Europeans and so were known at least by face if not name.

She then recalled that he had just returned from a vacation when all this had gone down and had an idea. "What about Teresa?"

Alfred frowned, trying to follow her line of thought. "...wait, you don't mean-"

"She and her sister still have large Native populations," Ginny reminded. "And they tend to keep to themselves, so they aren't as likely to say anything if it comes up."

"Huh," The Nation pondered, lips twitching up in a smile as the plan came together for him. "And since I just came back from vacation, I can just say I met him while I was there and got to know him. I had to leave to get back to work and stuff, he decided he wanted to come along to see the rest of the world since he really hasn't had much of a chance up until now, and I spent a bit of time setting him up in a guest room since he needed to adjust to the time difference."

"Sounds vague enough to work," The Virginian woman nodded, smiling. "And the other Nations should have no reason to know anything about him since he's from the southwest."

'Aside from Mexico," Alfred remembered with a frown. "I don't see her outside of meetings too much, and I'm not planning on dragging Tommy to them in any case, so I think I can put off her realizing something's up for a while, but that might be an issue."

"Do you have any meetings with her coming up?" Ginny asked.

"Well, there's the big World Meeting next month, and I think I might have something to talk with her about after that…"

"Then just have him stay with me during those days - I can keep an eye on him for you so he's not on his own, and you don't have to worry about them ever meeting in person."

"Right," Alfred nodded, smiling in relief. "That'll be easy enough to do, and by then we should be able to get him back safely and we won't have to worry about it anymore."

"Exactly," She smiled, waving a cleaned spoon at him before setting it out on the drying rack. "See, this is why you should talk with me more often - you always worry over everything too much."

"Yes ma," Alfred replied dutifully, grinning as she swat him in the shoulder for the smartass remark.

"Don't think I won't get back at you for being cute; remember who changed your linens after you wet the bed."

The American superpower stuck his tongue out at her. She replied with another swat before they both laughed.

"Seriously, though, go find them and talk to them," Ginny urged, pushing down the hand that had just grabbed the next bowl on the counter. "This is almost done, and you need to get to them before they leave for their hotel since they aren't staying for Thanksgiving this year."

"Yes ma'am," He replied, setting the bowl back down and leaving as she watched.

Ginny huffed, smile still curling her lips up as she shook her head. Really, what would he do without her sometimes?

~0~0~

" _You did it."_

_Alfred grinned. "I did it."_

_Chetan shook his head. "That's- I don't have the words."_

" _Incredible? Amazing?"_

" _Stupid, more like," The Native boy shook his head. "How do you know they won't try taking over again? You said your side's Canada is still with England - what if he invades through there?"_

" _Then I'll fight him again," Alfred vowed, straightening up. "As many times as I have to, unless he's forced to recognize my independance."_

_Chetan said nothing for a moment, eventually pressing his hand to the glass. "Just don't get yourself killed doing that, alright?"_

_Alfred returned the gesture, smile softening as their hands overlapped. "I'll try not to."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First note – I didn't realize I'd forgotten the flashback scene for last chapter until I reread the story to get myself into the mindset for this chapter, so I went and added that if you wanna read it. Secondly, this story will be going on a brief hiatus for July while I finish up my other works, so yeah hopefully you guys are alright with that. Also this should be the last major thing I need the States for for a while so if you aren't a fan of them they're mostly out of the story after this so rejoice.
> 
> (Also I changed Tommy's Native name to something I feel fits better, so that's a thing.)


	10. Bad Math

Kidnapped.

Alex still couldn’t believe someone would have the sheer gall to attempt such a thing during a delicate stand down between the two local superpowers of the world. Very few humans knew of the existence of personifications, and those that did knew that harming said personification did nothing to affect the state of their people. Tommy would be useless as a bargaining chip due to his immortality, and not even the most hardheaded extremists would think deliberately pissing off the Canadians was a smart idea.

No, this had to be the work of another Nation, and it had to be a message. ‘ _If I could do this to your precious territory, right under your nose, without any sort of fight, I could do it to you too.’_

If they had been aiming just to cripple him economically, he might not have been so wary. Forcing him to ground all his planes, civilian and military alike, for several weeks would be enough to prove their point. But they had gone a step further, snatching Tommy away while he was vulnerable and deliberately leaving evidence they were there.

He could have blamed the Chinese. He should be blaming the Chinese. Zhang had the most to gain from the incident, able to make trade and political deals while Alex was stuck dealing with this crisis. The middle east might have been angrier with them, but they didn’t have the resources to plan and coordinate a strike like this, or even the organization necessary. The rest of East Asia was under the man’s thumb, Africa was as bristly and isolationist as ever, Western Europe knew better than to piss Alex off at this point, and the less said about that failure of a Union under Mironov the better.

Zhang didn’t leave evidence behind.

And that was exactly what was there - glass shards and debris around blood stains? Footprints? Even if he was trying to throw Alex off the scent, he would have done everything to make the place seem abandoned, make the Canadian think he’d been wrong about his territory living there, not show his hand so soon after committing the deed.

No, he’d have made sure Tommy had been away, simply witness to an accident, make both of them unsure as to whether to make the accusation so soon after a disarmament talk. But that left him with no one and everyone to suspect instead, for all intents and purposes back to square one.

He threw down his half written report in disgust, doing his best to not look down the hall to Tommy’s bedroom, where the stains were still untouched. He needed to take pictures for evidence before anything happened to them, but going back in there while he was like this would only make him frustrated and baffled all over again.

Alex closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to refocus himself. What did he know?

A plane carrying food north had exploded. The schedules for all such food flights had been kept quiet in case anyone thought to try something funny, but that didn’t rule out internal forces in either Tommy’s people or his own who would have the most access to them for obvious reasons.

How had it been timed, though? More combing of the interior showed no bodies of potential stowaways, and anything rigged to the engine or rotors should have detonated at the first pickup location, not the last, no matter how fancy said trigger or bomb was. Even if it had been timed to a schedule, the plane had been delayed for hours, meaning if it’d been meant to go off there it would have taken the plane out in midflight.

He paused, frowning. If it had been timed for a non delayed flight, where would the plane have been? He tried to recall the final destination of that food; hadn’t it been on one of the eastern isles? Yeah, it could have landed by then, taking out one of his airstrips and some of his people with it.

Still, that didn’t add up. A timed bomb wouldn’t have had anyone close by to taken advantage of the explosion, not unless they had scrambled to account for the delay AND had known this was the exact place Tommy was staying, which was hard to believe when the territory basically only told Alex when he was moving; not even the Canadian government knew exactly where Tommy was most of the time.

Likewise with the whole thing being an accident; even if they hadn’t been involved, that they had been prepared to take advantage of it despite the narrow timeframe was just too much of a lucky coincidence. Not to mention getting transport out of here when people would have been on high alert for any sort of follow up on such short notice would have been close to impossible.

That only left the idea that this had been planned, that people had been in place, and that someone had activated the trap deliberately, at the exact moment Tommy would have been caught off guard and thus rendered vulnerable without being able to see the person or people doing so.

That level of planning was something he only trusted the Chinese to pull, but again, he couldn’t see Zhang being so sloppy, even if it was a double bluff to ease off suspicion.

And with thinking like that, he’d just be going in circles for hours, unable to make a decision. There was one thing he could do to check his suspicions, and that required him to go into town to investigate. If any foreigners had been through recently, surely someone would have seen them, right?

~0~0~

“ _I hate them,” Alfred swore, eyes shining in the dimly lit room. “I hate them so much.”_

_Chetan watched silently as his friend raged and grieved all at once, unable to handle the duality of his feelings._

“ _I was only defending myself, couldn’t they see that?” The white boy whimpered, staring at nothing as he hugged himself tightly. “They had no right to take my people, they knew that, but England, fucking England-”_

_The boy swung back around to rage, his fist hitting the wall next to the mirror and making it creak in agony from the force. “He turned my twin against me, just so that I’d be alone out here. He’s trying to break me, trying to make me come crawling back, but I’ll show him; I don’t need any of them, not Canada, not France, not England.”_

_The native boy raised an eyebrow, while Alfred quickly turned around to face the mirror again, wide eyed and apologetic. “I don’t mean you; you’re basically me, after all, so saying I don’t need you is like not needing myself, which is just ridiculous-”_

“ _I’m not you,” Cetan corrected slowly, frowning. “I’m not European-”_

“ _I’m not either!” Alfred snapped back. “I’m American, I won my independance from them-”_

“ _But you are still born of them. You still hold their ideals, their way of life, their languages. I am an indian,” Chetan spoke the word distastefully. “My people are not yours, and yours are not mine. I can understand keeping Europe out, but saying you aren’t-”_

“ _But yours could be mine!” The white American protested. “I don’t see what’s so bad about just accepting our way of life-”_

“ _-because we have our own!” Chatan snapped back. “We have thousands of years of history that you haven’t given one shit about, we have our own languages, our own cultures, our own ideals and beliefs and hopes If you’re really so desperate to stop being European, you should try being a bit more like us instead!”_

“ _But you’re primitive,” Alfred balked, about two seconds before he wished he hadn’t said a thing, because his friend’s face was absolutely flat._

“ _Good to know you aren’t any different from the rest of them,” The native boy replied tersely, cutting off the connection abruptly enough that it took a minute for Alfred to recognize his own reflection._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally getting back around to this! Updates should be on Tuesdays from here on out unless stuff comes up, since that'll be an easier schedule to keep in mind than just 'whenever I feel like during the week'. Also more 2p stuff, with mention of all the 'main' power groups of the world. I'll see what details I can get into each of them as we progress, but lemme know if there's anything in particular you're interested in.


	11. The Tourist Affliction

"Holy shit," Tommy muttered as he turned on his heels, trying to take in all the sights of Washington DC at once by turning where he stood, either purposefully or accidentally ignoring the people walking past and occasionally shooting him annoyed looks for being in the way.

Alfred thought the scenario hilariously adorable, especially since he'd never seen his friend and pseudo-counterpart like this before. Granted, they'd never been in this sort of situation before, which really threw things out of whack, but overall… he couldn't say he regretted it so far.

(...Even if the circumstances behind it could have been better.)

"Having fun there?" The blond asked, simply grinning a bit more widely when Tommy's smile dropped briefly to stare at him.

"Sorry I'm not used to places looking like this," He replied vaguely, waving his hands around to everything and nothing in particular. "Back home is a lot… different."

"Well obviously," Alfred replied in turn. "But is it really that different?"

"We don't have skyscrapers like those back home," Tommy shrugged. "Even at Alex's place, most of the buildings tends to be three stories at most."

"Skyscrapers?" Alfred looked around at the buildings, most of which didn't even reach ten floors. "Tommy, these aren't even close to skyscrapers these days."

"Seriously?" Tommy frowned. "I'm not exactly seeing how you can make them much bigger than that without them falling apart."

"Well, usually there's a ton of steel involved, and cement, but I'm pretty sure a building has to be at least fifty stories now in order to count at that, and all the important ones I can think of are at least a hundred."

"Bullshit," The Native man tried to imagine that and failed. "You can't make buildings that tall - what do you even do with that much room?"

"Mostly fill it with offices or shopping or apartments," Alfred mulled for a bit before shaking his head. "Maybe taking you to New York is a bad idea; if you can't even handle that…"

"Hey, golden boy, you promised, and I know you don't do take backs on those," Tommy scowled at him, and Alfred had to fight hard to maintain his concerned expression instead of giving in to his laughter.

Seriously, his friend was such a tourist, and seeing his wide eyed wonder at everything Alfred had long ago gotten used to was absolutely adorable, and endearing in a way he couldn't quite place. He honestly couldn't recall a single other Nation who had actually looked at the things his people had made and saw the beauty in them, and it made him wonder when he'd lost his own sight of that.

Bah, he could worry over philosophical shit later - Tommy was starting to wander off again, and it wouldn't do to have him get lost in this place, no matter that it would be cakewalk to find the guy through his people from how he stood out. "Where're you going?"

"To that tall tower over there," The brunet gestured, the peak of the Washington Monument just obvious from here. "It looks important."

"Well of course it is," Alfred replied automatically before realizing his friend couldn't know the significance. "That's the commemorative monument the people built for my first boss."

"...you mean like Egypt's people did?"

"Wha- no," The blond shook his head, wondering how he'd gotten that. "Pops- er, George was buried at his home. This is just a tribute to him."

"Ah," Tommy replied, slowing down when they passed the last of the buildings before the circular park surrounding the white stone tower. He didn't say anything for a moment after they finally stopped near the base, the brunet gazing up to the peak thoughtfully.

"You built him a giant white dick, then."

Alfred choked on air, having to hit his chest a few times while his friend laughed at his reaction. "It is not- why would you even-"

"Hey, just calling it as it is," Tommy replied innocently, though the effect was lost with his shiteating grin still in place.

"You're an ass," Alfred muttered, shaking his head while shoving away the comparison that had, sadly, been made by others before, but never right to his face, and not quite so bluntly either!

(Francis and Gilbert exchanging sly looks and waggled eyebrows wasn't the same - at least then he'd had the option of pretending they were making fun of something else.)

"Aw, but you love me anyways."

"Only in self defense," Alfred shot back, though he couldn't hide the small grin at the words.

(Honestly, where would he have been without the other there to keep him company in his loneliest moments? Even with the States around him all the time, they hadn't had to deal with the things he had, not to mention they were always so busy with their own duties and couldn't always make time for him anymore…)

"What're those places across the water?" Tommy moved the conversation on, gesturing to the two pools with buildings beyond each.

"Oh, that one down there is the Lincoln Memorial," Alfred replied. "He was my boss during the- war, and he made some important changes to the country, so he got that dedicated to him."

"So that guy got a whole building, while one of the guys who helped found your country only got a big stone dick?" Tommy queried. "Guess that shows which one you liked more."

"It's not like that," The blond huffed. "I don't exactly decide what my people build for each memorial."

"I know, blondie, I'm just teasing ya," His friend replied, turning his gaze down the other pool. "And the other place?"

"Oh, that's the White House," Alfred shrugged. "It's where my boss and I work most of the time when we aren't abroad on business or whatever."

"You work in that place?" Tommy whistled, looking over the old building with a new appreciation. "It's not as fancy as Alex's place, but it sure stands out."

"Well, yeah, it's not supposed to be too fancy," Alfred replied. "The whole point it that it's supposed to show that my boss isn't just some king ruling over the people, spending all of their wealth on his own pleasures. He's working for them because he was chosen by them. At least, that's how it's supposed to work anyways…"

The last part was mumbled too quietly to hear, the taste of the words slightly bitter in his mouth. Politics. Ulgh.

Tommy hummed in thought, glancing back at the other monument before nodding his head decisively. "So that's where you're going tomorrow before you head up to New York?"

"Yeah, I gotta catch up on the most important stuff here before I deal with that. Why?"

The Native grinned. "I'm coming with you; you said the place runs tours most days, right?"

"Uh, I don't know if I'll be able to-"

"Humor me."

Alfred exhaled. "Don't blame me if you're disappointed."

"Please, I think I can handle a few boring history lessons."

~0~0~

" _Chetan, are you there?"_

_Of course, the mirror stayed silent and unchanged, just as it had for the past few months. Alfred whimpered, leaning against the glass as if he could force it to ripple and give him his friend back._

" _Please, don't ignore me anymore." A beat. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean any of it."_

_Alfred's head hung as he slid to the floor, his shoulder starting to go cold from the contact with the glass. "I just want to be friends again. I'm sorry. I was wrong. Please forgive me."_

_The blond sniffled again. "I don't wanna be alone anymore."_

_Unsurprisingly, the mirror continued to fail to respond in any way. It was, after all, just a mirror._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Meanwhile, back with these two losers, everything seems to be going fairly peachy. And poor poor Tommy has no idea just what's ahead on this tour he's getting...


	12. Anonymous

"And we're walking… and we're walking…"

Tommy rolled his eyes, amazed at how downright weird his Euro-American counterpart could be. "Is this a mandatory part of the tour?"

"Of course," Alfred replied, looking offended. "Everyone knows tour guides are either obnoxiously cheerful or absolutely bored out of their minds, and since I suck at the second one, I figured I should give you an authentic experience in the best way I know how."

"You're treating me like I'm three."

"To be fair, most of the tours are for school kids."

"I feel so much more special now."

The blond stuck out his tongue, looking about the right age to be the one taking this tour instead of Tommy. "You should, considering I'm the one giving it to you."

Tommy shrugged, suppressing most of his grin. "I guess that's fair enough."

"If you'd rather have another tour guide, I can hand you off while I go get some work done…" Alfred threatened lightly.

The Native obligingly put on a horrified expression. "You wouldn't."

"I would."

"Fine, fine, I'll be nice," Tommy sighed deeply, his gaze slipping to the side as he took in what was basically his counterpart's history. "You must have a ton of fond memories about this place."

"Yeah, I do," Alfred smiled softly, pausing in his backwards walk to look at their surroundings, seeing things Tommy simply would never be able to. "A lot of important documents and people came through here, as well as a ton of life altering decisions by my bosses. Some better than others, I guess…"

"What's your favorite?"

"Hmm?" Alfred tilted his head to the side, a gesture Tommy had never really thought much about until now, where he could see how the light just caught his glasses.

"Your favorite memory here."

Alfred paused again, face scrunching in thought. "It's… really hard to pick, ya know? I had some pretty great moments with almost all of my bosses, even the ones I didn't get along with much when it came to politics."

"Yeah, I feel you," The brunet nodded, having gotten on decently enough with most of his leaders as well. "What about-"

"Alfred!"

The Euro-American Nation jumped, quickly spinning around to face the person approaching. "Oh, hey boss!"

"I thought you'd be in your office by now," The president replied, glancing from Alfred to Tommy. "And who's your friend?"

"Oh, this is Tommy, he decided to come with me since he's never been to DC and stuff, and I figured since he was here anyways I could give him a bit of a look around before I start on the paperwork and stuff."

"I see," The man nodded, turning his gaze back to his country. "Normally I would let you go, but China has been waiting for you there for the past forty minutes, and I don't think he'd appreciate the excuse quite as much."

"Wait, what?" Alfred balked, pulling out his phone and skimming through it before paling. "Fuck, fuck fuck fuck-"

WIth that the blond took off in a dead run, skidding around the corner and disappeared down the halls, his footsteps fading about as quickly as the swears dropping from his lips. It took Tommy a moment to realize it was just him and Alfred's boss in the hall now - discounting the security guards - and fairly out of his depths now that he didn't have his native (hah!) guide around anymore.

"What am I going to do with him?" The president sighed, turning back to Tommy after a moment. "So you're the person I've been hearing about over the phone for the past week, then."

"He's been talking about me?" Tommy asked, now wondering just how many people actually knew about him at this point.

"When he didn't come back last week like I expected, I checked in on him just to make sure nothing had gone wrong. After he explained the circumstances, I let him do what work he could from home so that he didn't fall too far behind."

"Oh," The Native American replied, having not really thought much about that. "So he's not in trouble then?"

"For helping a friend?" The man grinned. "No, he's normally good about keeping track of his work and meetings, so I don't have any issues being lenient if he needs it."

"Ah. That's good, I guess."

The president laughed. "Feeling a bit out of place right now?"

More than he could even begin to imagine. "A bit, if we're being honest here."

"If you'd like, I could show you to his office so you can wait for him there instead."

"But don't you have more important things to do?" Tommy wondered, baffled that someone as purportedly important as this man was willing to do that for a lesser Nation like him.

Alfred's world was simply too strange sometimes.

"I had initially come over to give him some documents anyways," The man replied, showing off the small device in his hands… oh right, a USB, Alfred had had a few of those in his house. "Since he ran off before I could give it to him, I might as well show you the way since I'm heading over there now."

"Oh. Thanks, then."

"No problem."

Or maybe it wasn't so strange, Tommy decided as he and the president made their way down the halls of the old building. After all, he wasn't 'America' here; he was just Alfred's friend, which in other situations might have irritated him at the lack of recognition but in this case felt more like a warm blanket of relative anonymity.

People weren't going to ignore him because they knew who he was; they were going to look past him because they didn't. If he wanted to, he could make a new name for himself here, simply start over in a place that didn't know his history.

This thought was tossed away as soon as it manifested, because as much potential as it had, he could not, would not, abandon his people just to be selfish. No matter how much he complained about his life, that other world was still home, with all the good and bad alike that came with it. And even if he could somehow just bring his people along as well, would they even want to? Uprooting their entire lives and history and land just for a chance that things might be better for them all on this side?

He might be enamored with the place so far, but he wasn't  _stupid_. He'd survived this long, hadn't he?

The room they were looking for was obvious since it was slightly ajar, showing off a shiny round shield Alfred had been eager to show off a few years back. The president didn't think much of knocking, drawing the attention of the two inside.

"You left behind some documents," The man explained simply, holding up the USB pointedly.

"Oh, sorry boss," Alfred replied, while the guy who looked a lot like Zhang, at least in terms of his face and height, simply rolled his eyes in exasperation as the small object was tossed over and caught. "Surprised you didn't send an intern to do this instead."

"I needed the chance to stretch my legs," The president offered, stepping back so that Tommy had room to enter. "Good luck with your meeting."

"Thank you sir, you too."

And then there were three, and Tommy wasn't quite sure this was any better than being left behind the first time around.

~0~0~

" _Alfred."_

_The blond jumped from where he was curled up in bed, book dropping from limp fingers as he spun to the mirror in disbelief. "Chetan?"_

_Indeed, the boy who'd disappeared from his life for nearly six years was back, though looking far worse for wear than Alfred could ever recall. He scrambled off the bed and over to the mirror, pressing desperate fingers while his mouth ran at a hundred miles an hour at least, trying desperately to apologize and to ask what had happened all at the same time._

" _I'm fine," The native boy eventually cut through, Alfred ducking his head in embarrassment. "And I forgive you for being an idiot."_

" _Mean," The Euro-American boy replied heatlessly, a hand drifting up to overlap the bruise around his friend's eye. "What happened, though?"_

" _Canada went to war with Europe, depending independance. I got dragged into it."_

" _He what?" Alfred blinked, wondering if this was how the other had felt when Alfred had announced the news. "Did you guys win?"_

" _He won. I got the short end of the deal."_

_Chetan had the look of one of Alfred's soldiers after the wars. "I'm as of a month ago Canadian territory. Indefinitely."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eh, a bit of a rougher chapter to get out than usual, since I realized that what I was going for might not be entirely realistic, even considering the setting and plot so far. Hopefully you all still enjoy, because I do not want to even think about trying to rewrite this right now.


	13. Caravan Storehouse

"Excuse me!"

Alex paused, head shifting slightly towards the woman who had called him out. Local resident, working class fashion, tightness to the eyes and lips, but no clenched fists, so not angry. Worried? Not a threat. "Yeah?"

She stopped before him, looking up slightly thanks to the height difference. "You're one of the people sent to investigate that explosion, aren't you?"

The Canadian raised a brow. "I am. What about it?"

She took a breath. "We did a headcount of the injured and the bodies, and one of them is missing. He'd be a younger man, maybe eighteen or nineteen-"

"He's currently under watch for health concerns," Alex replied, figuring it would be hard for them to investigate easily. "Got a nasty concussion from the explosion. We're hoping once he's coherent we can get information the others didn't have."

Her eyes widened and jaw slackened. "He'll be okay?"

"He should be; he a friend of yours?"

"I, well, I suppose so," She replied, teeth scraping her lower lip. "He would stop by the restaurant every week, chatting with the other customers and the staff. Such a sweet guy… I hope he recovers alright…"

"When was the last time you saw him?" Alex pressed, hoping this would lead to something useful.

Her brows furrowed slightly. "It was the day of the explosion; he and the rest of the workers had come back for the last round of crates, and were taking a break. I brought them drinks, and kept an eye on them as they loaded up the truck, in case they looked like they needed a second drink. They left after they locked up the storehouse, and I didn't think much of it until I felt the quake from the explosion."

"Which storehouse were they loading from?" Alex asked, even though he and his people had gone through all the main ones already-

"Oh, the small one back there, the one for caravan holdovers," She gestured to the side, where he could see the warehouse with the distinct red trimming. "We were a bit short on the supplies you wanted, so we had to improvise."

Well, that would have been great to know earlier. "Can I and my men take a look through there? We're trying to make sure everything is accounted for."

She pressed her lips together, eventually exhaling and nodding. "My brother has the keys, give me ten minutes and we can open it for you."

"Thank you for your assistance in this," Alex tilted his head respectfully.

She huffed. "Just make sure that whatever caused this mess doesn't happen again - those were good lives wasted."

As promised, the doors to the place were open ten minutes later, Alex walking along the makeshift corridors created by the color-rimmed crates. There was teal for New Amsterdam, over there the white of White Rock, there the green of Cherokee Creek. All destined to be hauled onto the biweekly caravans of trucks heading across those hundreds of miles with little rest.

He frowned as he picked up one of the papers listing the details of the grey rim crate it had come from. Very few people bothered to send stuff from coast to coast, as the price was rather exorberant for all but the most vital of supplies, and most things could generally be found more locally if one looked a bit. But here were nine of them, all bound for the eastern port of Akamich, and all sent from Seattle.

Now, what would a small port town need with all this scrap metal and junk?

Frowning, he gestured for a crowbar from the same man who'd opened the storehouse for him earlier, cracking open the lid with minimal effort and shoving it away so he could shine a light inside.

The red and obsidian sigil of the Chinese State glared back up at him, contrasting with the bright, smooth steel of what was most definitely not scrap metal.

~0~0~

_Alfred didn't bother to acknowledge the shift in the mirror in front of him, eyes firmly focused on his knees to hide how red they were._

" _Hey, you alright?" Chetan asked anyways, just as willing to ignore the insociable body language his friend was displaying quite firmly._

"' _m fine," The blond muttered unconvincingly, wrapping his arms a bit tighter around his curled legs, hoping the other would just go away already-_

" _Who'd you lose?"_

_The minutes stretched out, Alfred choking on all the different things he could have said, both hostile and dismissive and angry and otherwise alike. After some fumbling and false starts, he eventually managed to whisper hoarsely, "Tom and John both went. I didn't even-"_

" _And here I was checking to see how well your birthday had gone…" The Native boy replied softly. "Do you have alcohol in your house?"_

_The odd question finally had Alfred look up form his knees. "Why?"_

" _It might not taste great, but it helps dull the hurt a little," his friend replied, smiling wryly at some personal joke the blond wasn't in on._

" _I don't know…" The Euro-American replied, biting his lip. "If Ginny finds out I've been drinking…"_

" _It's only once, right? And I'll be here with you," Chetan noted. "Trust me, you need this."_

_Alfred looked into his friend's eyes, eventually sighing after seeing no deception in them. "Just once."_

_He never asked how his friend had gotten so familiar with the taste, figuring it wasn't his place to ask at this point. Besides, the quiet company was enough to help the beer muddle the worst of the hurt, and conversation might have ruined it._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, I apologize for the LONG delay in updating, but it took a bit longer than I expected to get the notes done for the rest of Mirror (at least the first act) and tbh it was hard getting back into writing actual fics and updates after a month of just relaxing with self indulgent drabbling. I'm gonna power through the rest of this first half of the fic over the next two weeks, so cheers to those who missed this fic and wanted to see it updated! More info is on the profile page, along with all my other plans for my current projects and whatnot.


	14. Obvious

"A friend of yours?"

Alfred's gaze slid from Tommy back to Yao, who looked unruffled by the sudden visitor. "Ah, yeah, he's hanging out with me for a while."

He expected more questions, but the Chinese nation simply nodded and returned to his earlier talking point. "As I was stating, my bosses have agreed to go along with the investment treaty; all we need to do is work out the overall limits and requirements for each side."

"Yeah, no big deal," The American joked, well aware that this hammering would more than likely take all morning at the least. "Just another trade agreement."

"Indeed," His somewhat ally agreed, smile twitching at his lips, before his gaze slid back over to the quietly watching Tommy. "Will he be alright?"

"Huh?"

"Your intern. I'm guessing he isn't quite used to sitting in on such long meetings yet."

"Ah," Did the older Nation actually think that, or was it just a way to get Tommy out of the way? "Tommy, think you'll be alright?"

The addressed Nation blinked, and Alfred guessed he was wondering the same thing before making his decision. "I'll be alright, but thanks for offering."

Yao simply gave the younger man a look, prompting him to raise his hands in defense. "Fine, fine, I'll wait outside for you two to finish."

Only after the door shut behind him did Yao finally turn back to Alfred, eyebrow raised. "I start to see why that one is so tolerant of you."

"Hey," Alfred protested, even though he wasn't completely positive he had the older Nation's thoughts pegged.

"Relax, it was just an observation. Which of your companies have been showing interest in access to my markets?"

The American took a second to recognize the shift back to business, huffing at once again being left wondering just what Yao was thinking before getting to the work he'd accidentally put off. "I've got a list of them sorted by size and services if you want to look through it; if I remember right, the main ones are…"

~0~0~

"Hey, Tommy, ready for lunch?" Alfred shook his friend's shoulder, resisting the urge to laugh when said friend jerked awake and lifted his head from the table to stare at him. His cheek was indented and red from where it'd been pressed against the wood, and just a bit of drool was lingering on his chin.

"Al? Fuck, wha' time is it?" The brunet asked with a yawn, glancing over to the clock in the room and looking back to his friend before registering the time. "Wait, did you spend five hours talking to him?"

"And I'm probably gonna spend another five after lunch dealing with it," Alfred shrugged, waiting for Tommy to push himself up from his chair with a groan. "You napped the whole time?"

"Yeah, figured I'd catch up on sleep," The Native man yawned again,reaching his arms up and shifting them around a bit until a faint but audible crack was heard. "Didn't get much last night."

"Bad dreams or stuff at home?" The other asked, frowning.

"Think it's the former; didn't feel like anything urgent from home, but sometimes it's hard to tell."

"I guess that's good then? Because no news is better than bad and all that…" Alfred trailed off with a slight wince, realizing that there might be no news because of the oddities around, well, what had happened to them.

"I guess," Tommy agreed, offering a smile that wasn't entirely honest. "Still, I can't believe you can get along with that guy for five hours."

Alfred blinked. "You mean Yao? I usually get along with him just fine; he's really chill and fun outside of official business, and if we both have free time we sometimes hang out and do stuff together."

Tommy stared at him for a long moment, eventually shaking his head while walking ahead. "Sometimes I forget that you guys get along so easily over here. 's freaking weird, I swear."

"Hey, it's not that weird!" The Euro-American protested, quick to catch up and walk alongside, quietly directing their path towards the exit. "I mean, I get along with Ivan just fine even though we used to hate each other's guts, and even though his boss really deserves a kick in the nuts, and Arthur and Francis have been fighting since they were born probably and they still hang out a lot. Like, I guess it's just that we've figured out how to separate business and politics from our personal lives?"

"Maybe," Tommy hummed noncommittally, leaving Alfred to wonder once again what he was missing in this conversation.

He hated feeling like he was missing something obvious.

~0~0~

" _He can't do this!"_

_Chetan watched on quietly from his side of the glass as Alfred barely kept himself from shattering the bedframe, fists clenched tightly into the sheets._

" _The Justices said no, but he just-" The blond swallowed, turning back to his friend. "I thought I could stop it here, but…"_

" _I know you tried," The Native boy grimaced, rubbing his arm. "White people are just stupidly stubborn about taking what isn't theirs sometimes."_

" _He wouldn't even listen to what I had to say, and none of the States seem to care what he's doing is wrong…" Alfred bit his lip. "Why doesn't anyone see this for what it is?"_

" _Most of your people haven't had the time to get to know us," Chetan replied simply. "How do you think you would have felt about all this if we had never met?"_

_Alfred found himself unable to reply._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I meant to post this earlier, but sort of got sidetracked when we had to go get a new modem cause the old one went kaput. I also sort of apologize for how slow these chapters might be, because I'm trying to establish characters and stuff a bit I guess. Like, I'm acknowledging Alfred isn't always the best at reading people (something I'm positive is canon or at least extremely plausible).
> 
> I really can't wait to get to the main plot though, but that will be... yeah.


	15. Nostalgia

Tommy was in the middle of his sandwich when Alfred finally brought the conversation around to something he'd never been eager to talk about. "How well do you get along with the others on your side?"

The Native American shrugged, taking another bite while he tried to figure out how long it would take to get the other to drop his interest. It wasn't that big a deal, really, but after hearing all about how buddy buddy Alfred was with everyone, he just… well…

"'s just that I know you've mentioned going to meetings and stuff before," Alfred continued. "And so I figured relations on your side can't've been too terrible, right? I mean, you're getting out of a cold war and stuff, which makes things a bit weird, I know from experience, but…"

Tommy exhaled. "Well, I get on alright with Klaus... ah, Prussia to you. Flavio can be a pain sometimes, but he's a decent enough cook, I guess… when I have a chance to see Makani, he and I are pretty chill? I don't really get the chance too often with him being sort of isolationist and in the middle of the ocean and all that."

He thought that Alfred might notice how short the list was and comment, but all he got was a smile and continued attention. "Last guy's Hawaii, right?"

"Yeah, Kingdom of," Tommy took another bite, frowning thoughtfully. "Isn't your side's a girl?"

"Iolana," Alfred's smile dipped a bit for just a moment. "She's pretty great, honestly, though I don't see her too often outside state meetings 'cause of how far she is from the mainland and stuff."

"You can't Walk that far?"

The blond shook his head. "I mean, I technically can, but it's about as draining as grabbing you was, so I tend to save it for emergencies."

...right, Tommy thought he remembered something like that. Al had sounded pissed off once he was back on his feet, thinking back on it.

"Anyways, tell me a bit about them. I know I blab a lot about my friends, but I've never really given you a chance to, and I dunno, I feel kinda bad for just realizing that now?"

Tommy snorted without really thinking about it. "It's fine, hotshot, you know I'd've complained before now if it bugged me."

"I know, I know, but still," Alfred shrugged helplessly.

The brunet sighed, thinking of how exactly he was going to go about this, seeing as he'd never really had to describe his relationships to anyone before - they usually just… went with it. "Makani's not too talkative, but he's pretty good at carving things. Doesn't really matter the material, he can make some impressive stuff out of whatever's at hand so long as he's got the tools for it. He's also got a weird thing about people's shadows, not entirely sure what's up with that, actually."

Alfred frowned, nodding. "Yeah, Iolana had something similar, though I don't think she does that anymore. Something to do with souls or magic or something?"

"Sounds about right," Tommy agreed, tilting his head back thoughtfully. "Flavio's sort of the complete opposite, always yapping about fashion and style and freaking out whenever he sees blood. Pisses his brother off a ton, which is always a plus in my books since Luciano is an ass. He's a pretty decent chef, actually, even though he uses some really weird shit in his recipes sometimes."

The Native American leaned forward, gaze directed vaguely out at the people passing by outside the small diner they'd slipped into for lunch. "He's got immigrants down in the southern parts of my land, and they're decent enough folk, keep to themselves and all that. Didn't really get to know him personally until the war, but he turned out to be fairly friendly for, well, a Euro. Decent shot as long as he didn't see the blood afterwards. Bet you can imagine how long he lasts in hospitals."

"Not too long, probably." Alfred snorted in amusement.

"Avoids them like the plague. It's actually hilarious when he wakes up in one after knocking himself out 'cause of a spider or something dumb like that."

His friend nodded. "And Klaus?"

"Klaus…" Tommy pressed his lips together thoughtfully. "He's actually pretty cool for a mute guy."

"Prussia? _Mute?_ " Alfred raised a brow.

"Got his throat shredded in a fight with another Nation, never said who, but I can guess," Tommy shrugged. "About the same time he lost his arm, actually, and since he got them both while he was weakened, they never healed right. He's got a mechanical prosthetic for the latter; works pretty well most of the time, though that might partially be, y'know, Nation shit and not how it'd work for a human."

"Huh, weird, but makes sense I guess," The blond nodded, gesturing for Tommy to continue.

"He's got a great sense of humor even without his voice, though, and is really good at fucking with the others without them realizing he's there. He's scared the crap out of Zhang and Alex more than a few times, and honestly their expressions kill me every time 'cause they totally miss him in the background laughing at them."

Tommy closed his eyes briefly, thinking back to all the things they'd been able to do while he'd been in Europe, though the other had occasionally managed to come by his land. "His quiet thing also lets him get along with animals; I've seen more than a few wild animals just walk right up to him before, and his brother gets so annoyed when their dogs pay more attention to him instead."

"Sounds like a really good friend."

The brunet didn't reply right away, picking up his sandwich before muttering, "I guess."

Taking a bite, he wondered, briefly, how well the two would get along.

~0~0~

_Alfred leaned against the mirror, a half-empty mug of beer in hand. On the other side, Chetan_ _had his own drinks, though he'd been surprisingly stingy with them._

" _Are you sure it's not just nerves?" The blond asked, glancing to the other. "I know that's had similar effects on me."_

" _Maybe," Chetan muttered, staring down into his cup. "I don't know. None of the Tribes are acting like they're going to war…"_

" _...but?"_

" _I don't know, it's just… sometimes, when I'm not looking right at them, they look… angry. Torn. And I know they're pissed at Canada and Europe and everything, I am too, but… we just got out of a fight, and so many of us are tired and hungry and bickering with each other, and I'm scared that if we fight, we might not survive."_

_Alfred's hand rested against the glass, it's chill a stark reminder of the invisible distances that separated them._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahahahahah, I totally didn't just finish writing this in order to make up for the fact that I had no time to write yesterday (thank you Comcast for killing our modem and making us go all the way out to Dublin to get a new one). But yeah this chapter... went different than I had planned, but I'm happy because I can make use of this later, like all the other random shit I'm throwing in because DAMNIT ALL I WILL MAKE EVERYTHING RELEVANT BECAUSE I AM NOT WRITING FREAKING FLUFF ANYMORE I'M WRITING ACTION AND MYSTERY.
> 
> ...anyways, off to write the actual next chapter that's going up tomorrow.


	16. Investments and Investigation

A sheaf of papers dropped gently to the desk, the man who was holding them pushing himself up from his chair and walking over to the window. He looked down on the busy streets below, bustling with life as people went about their business, wholly oblivious to the troubles likely to come, and sighed.

He was, he decided, getting far too old for this.

Of course, Zhang Jie did not look old by any stretch of the imagination, and his records officially labelled him as twenty six years old, as they had the year before, and the years before that, and for several thousand years before there were such bureaucratic needs for things like 'official age'. Not that anyone ever saw those records besides himself - the emperor knew better, and the council and panel didn't care so long as he did his job.

That job, of course, being the absorption and dissemination of information, both from the internal affairs of the New Chinese Republic and from the external affairs of other countries that might affect them in the short or long terms. That, on top of being the representative of all seven hundred million citizens of China, made it a bit difficult to find the energy to be too sociable outside of what was necessary.

Jie sighed again, closing his eyes and resisting the urge to rub at the dully throbbing headache that had come from recent reports overseas. Apparently one of the glorious Canadian Empire's aircraft had gone up in a fiery explosion, leading to a bunch of internal panic and reorganizing while they figured out the source. He had already had a bad feeling of what his people would find out even before more details came in on what remained of the plane, and now he was almost certain this was tied into another issue he'd been dealing with.

Namely, the convenient disappearance of some of his weapons stockpiles over the past couple of months. The inventory differences had only been noticed because of some fumbling elsewhere in the system, forcing a general investigation to make sure nothing else was mislabelled. Where they were going, and for what purpose, had yet to be known, but it seemed one piece of the puzzle was being added in.

America. Whoever was taking the stuff was moving it through the veritable outback of Canadian territory, which would have pinned the blame on said Canadian except for the fact that their plane had exploded. And Danson, for as much of a hotheaded upstart he could be, was not stupid enough to blow up one of his own planes and then proceed to panic over it.

But, of course, that didn't mean the Canadian couldn't try to pin this on him. If it did turn out to be his weaponry - which he was more and more certain it would be, because he'd checked for his supplies close to home and had dug up nothing - then Danson would come, one way or another, just to demand information on why such heavily regulated objects were in his territory.

Jie sighed again, shaking his head. He could worry about his political opponent later - for now he needed to go over what he knew so he had some idea of where future searches would be directed.

He turned away from the window, returning to his desk and picking up the documents again, uncovering the world map he'd been plotting points and information on for the past few days. The sight of the explosion was circled in red ink, the name of the township and time of the event labelled besides it, and all the most common 'caravan' routes through that area were carefully dotted in with their colors.

From its location towards the east coast, the weapons had either been flown in (unlikely), brought in from the east coast (also unlikely), or were hauled all the way from Mexican territory to the west, possibly bound for said eastern coast.

On that last thought, he circled the largest Mexican port on the Pacific in blue, with some notes to check and see whether some of his stuff was being diverted south as well. If they were, then there was a good chance they were being sold to the South American insurrectionists who were already on the brink of another civil war. The stuff heading east, then, might be going to Africa to fuel their brush wars while pinning ultimate blame for profit mongering onto him.

If not, then… where would they be going? Jie frowned, setting down his pen while looking over the emptier parts of the map. While it might be heading to countries close to his, the route seemed rather roundabout and expensive to be being bought out by Vietnam or India. The Arabian territories were a potential buyer, but they would have come directly to him to buy the weaponry at a far cheaper price than they would get from smugglers.

Which left… Europe. Who also didn't have the cash to afford this sort of weaponry. They'd been quiet, cowed by the Canadians into giving up much of their influence and territory after the War. While resentment could easily fester in such a situation, most of that was being diffused into western Europe's snipe fest with eastern Europe's attempt at a federation.

(A project he might or might not have been partially funding on the side, since they were attempting to build up respectable republics. Whether they would work out in the long term had yet to be seen, but the value of not only acquiring likeminded trading partners, plus snubbing the Canadians, was too valuable to risk.)

He made some notes next to both sides of the subcontinent before sitting back to stare at his world map. There were still too many unknowns, too many things to guess about. He could theorize all day on motivations for every major and minor group on the planet, but that wouldn't help deal with what he could do right now.

Starting with the inevitable confrontation with Danson.

He had a bit of time before that, however; he still had reports to go over on his neighboring countries, and there was a good chance at least two of them were involved in this smuggling ring.

~0~0~

" _Is this how you felt?" Chetan asked quietly. "Back then, I mean."_

_Alfred looked up, a wave of sympathy washing through him at the tension in his friend's expression. "No, not really."_

_The Native American frowned, tilting his head in confusion. "Then how was it?"_

" _I was sick to my stomach the whole time. My States were ready to fight, and a lot of my people were as well, but…" The blond closed his eyes, still remembering the hurt in Art- in England's eyes._

" _...I don't think I'm ready to fight, either," Chetan admitted after a moment. "But I don't think I have a choice."_

" _I don't think either of us have ever had the choice," Alfred whispered whispered back, opening his eyes in time to see the quiet nod of agreement from the other._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that, we introduce my (old) new 2p character, Zhang Jie! He is in fact a character I used to rp a long while back, though his character has undergone some development since then. And, yes, I made him a (almost) republic, because the idea just tickled my fancy and I figured it was plausible enough. The emperor is still a mostly hereditary seat, but the Council and Panel are elected bodies with six year election cycles and a bunch of other nitty gritty details I can work out in my own time.


	17. Lucky

This was the second time Tommy had been left alone with someone besides Alfred since he'd arrived here, both of them this week even. Unlike Alfred's boss, however, Ginevra knew fully well who and what he was, and also fully well did not seem too bothered by it.

Then again, she'd gotten most of her freakout out of the way already, so that was probably why.

The brunet shook his head, glancing back over to the older woman who was even now spreading her attention between dusting off and washing the dishes needed for later that evening, making certain the house was in order, and taking calls from the various States who were on her list of guests for the evening. Since there was no other help this early into the day, he'd been dragged into helping out, while his lucky bastard of a friend got to escape for a half-day's work.

Still, he supposed, it could have been worse. Ginevra had not left him to do the majority of the work, stating that Alfred should have had most of them done before then anyways, guest around or not. It was enough to make him look forward to Alfred's return, if only for the inevitable (and likely one-sided) showdown.

Tommy laughed under his breath, wondering if she would be anything like his sister while…

"Something wrong?"

He startled, looking back up to see the concerned frown on Ginevra's face. "Ah, nah, just thinking."

She snorted, setting the trays she'd pulled out down on the kitchen counter. "You're as terrible a liar as Alfred, you know, and you make the same face as him when you're thinking about things you'd rather forget."

Tommy shook his head, huffing softly. "You just remind me of my sister is all."

Her eyebrows shot up at that, turning back to him rather incredulously. He laughed with a shrug and continued, "I mean in your attitude. She was the type to always be in charge, making sure everyone did their duties and stuff so that we could all keep managing even as the Europeans made their way further inland. People didn't always like her, but they listened, and I thought for a long time she was the strongest person in the world."

Ginevra said nothing for a moment, just evaluating him. "...what happened to her?"

He grimaced. "England."

She hummed and inclined her head. "Somehow that doesn't surprise me."

"Didn't surprise me to hear all the shit he pulled on your side, either."

"Somehow I don't think it compares to what he did to you." She shook her head, hesitating for a moment before asking, "What was her name?"

"...Wichahpi."

Ginevra nodded slowly, mulling the name over. "...that's a pretty name. And yours?"

Tommy stopped, fingers tightening against the counter he was leaning against. He hadn't let himself think about it in a while, and had almost stopped being angry about it. There was no reason he couldn't utter it now - he was an entire universe away from anyone who could make him regret it - but years and years of conditioning made the simple name heavy in his throat.

He startled out of his thoughts again when a hand grabbed gently onto his arm, Ginevra looking completely apologetic for the inadvertent reaction. "If you don't want to, don't worry about it. I just figured…"

"It's fine," He replied, swallowing before continuing. "You didn't know, and it's not really a big deal. You can ask Al if you want, let him know I'm alright with it."

She shook her head and sighed, letting go in the process. "I swear the two of you are perfect for each other, considering you both seem incapable of letting people help with your problems."

Her exasperation was enough to draw a brief grin to his face, and a wry smile came onto hers in response.

"Still, I apologize for stressing you like that. I should have figured there was a reason you were using a European name despite your poor history with them."

"You aren't even the hundredth person to ask before thinking about it, it's really not a huge issue," He replied, shaking his head. "I'm not even usually this bothered about it, it's just… weird right now."

"Weird? What could possibly be weird about the situation you're in?" She asked rhetorically, drawing a laugh from him.

"Yeah, nothing weird about this at all." He shook his head, looking back to her with a new appreciation. "Ya know, Al's really lucky to have you."

Ginevra smiled softly. "Your sister was lucky to have you as well."

~0~0~

_It was strange, realizing that even as he marched on Mexico City, his best friend was fighting his own war of independance._

_Alfred kicked back on his blanket, gazing up at the stars while allowing his thoughts to wander. There was some comfort in the knowledge that those lights up there, so old and unchanging, did not care about the affairs of people or nations and would not care even if the end of the world came about tomorrow. He wondered, briefly, whether the stars Chetan looked up at were the same, or if they too were subtly shifted in ways he couldn't picture._

_Chetan was brave, and clever, and had the right of things in his mind, trying to show his people deserved to have their own voice recognized. Maybe if he had been in Alfred's world, he could have kept so many terrible things from happening, or perhaps nothing would have changed at all, but…_

_The young American bit his lip. The Native American boy was also going up against an empire, but unlike Alfred, he did not have allies to distract and weaken said Empire's forces to a manageable level. Of course, said empire also had fewer resources, being newly founded, but…_

_Overhead, a star shot past, a streak in the night sky that quickly vanished even as he finished his small wish for his friend to come out of his battles alright._

_He felt helpless, knowing there was nothing else he could do after that._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Ginny is back, and I do have plans for her in the second half. If you aren't a fan of State OCs, you'll probably want to put this down after the first arc is done, as she and a few other OCs (one state, one not) will end up playing some rather important roles. Felt like warning you ahead just in case, and will probably warn you several more times before we get there.
> 
> As an aside, I finally decided on a name for the sister I mentioned way back when in a flashback, and am slowly expanding more on characters and history and stuff. I hope you guys aren't minding the worldbuilding too much!


	18. Moongazing

Alfred found his friend out on the back patio, seated on the steps and gazing out at nothing in particular. He didn't say anything right away, simply taking a seat next to the other man and offering a beer bottle.

"Some family you have," Tommy commented first, taking the bottle and cracking the lid off. "Is it always like this?"

"When we get together, yeah," Alfred replied, popping his own bottle open but not drinking right away. "But that's usually around holidays; the rest of the time we're all usually busy with our work and stuff."

"Mmm," The brunet hummed, taking another sip of his drink. "Should probably go and see mine when I get back…"

"Definitely," The Euro-American agreed. "I know the States freak out whenever I get myself killed, and my, well, kidnapping you and stuff probably didn't help?"

Tommy snorted. "Would you have done anything different even if you'd thought of that at the time?"

"...nah, still would've helped you," Alfred conceded. "Still would've been wrong to sit back and do nothing."

"Softie," His friend scoffed, but there was a smile hidden behind the bottle rim, so he mentally labelled it a victory.

They fell silent after that, sipping at their drinks while enjoying the clear night. Behind them the warmth of life and hearth radiated, and Alfred could feel the good cheer bouncing around his States like his own. Even Tommy, a stranger to most of them, had started to relax and enjoy himself as the night and dinner had progressed.

Alfred wondered if his friend had even had such family get togethers at home.

He thought he could pinpoint times where his friend was marginally more relaxed, a bit less grit to his smiles and grins, though they were far apart and staggered enough that they might have simply been good days and nothing special. He wasn't sure which he wanted to believe, though, because while the latter would make less assumptions, it would also mean…

He sighed and looked up, the Moon just past its fullest phase for the month. There were so many differences between his world and the one past the mirror, and he also knew that Tommy had only mentioned a fraction of them in all the years they'd known each other. While his friend had never been the same chatterbox he was, he couldn't help but wonder if the silence was just because his friend didn't think them worth mentioning or if he was deliberately keeping quiet.

If the former, then would it be possible to get his friend to open up more during his stay? If the latter… then for whose sake was he keeping quiet?

"Looks the same as back home."

Alfred blinked, glancing over to his friend, who was now looking towards the night sky as well. Tommy glanced back to him, gesturing up vaguely with the hand holding his bottle.

"The moon. Has the same patterning to it and everything. With everything else so weird around here, I always figured it would change too, but…"

Alfred nodded in understanding. "It's probably just too big and old to care about little things like human history, don't you?"

Tommy laughed. "Says the guy who still can't stop bragging about being the only country to put people on it."

Alfred laughed as well. "Hey, don't knock it until you've tried it. The view from up there is…"

He trailed off, the vision of an Earth so small and distant appearing behind his eyelids like the picture had been snapped seconds ago. Though he had rarely used the talent, he'd figured looking through his people's eyes while they walked up there would be worth it…

"...I wonder." He finally continued, looking back up at the moon thoughtfully.

"Wonder what?"

"Well, if the moon looks the same from your Earth, then maybe Earth looks the same from your moon too."

Tommy was silent for a moment, seeming to seriously contemplate the question, and perhaps it's less obvious meanings as well.

"That'd be nice to find out someday."

~0~0~

_Alfred adjusted his new glasses, trying his best not to look away from the absolutely horrible state his friend was in. He'd been lucky, winning easily against Mexico and effectively doubling his territory through the acquisition of Texas, New Mexico, and Alta California. Of the three, the last had most directly required his attentions, both due to her young age and to the fact that she had had gold._

_Lots of it._

_Enough that not only his people, but all the other Nations and their people had rushed in to get a piece of the action, encouraging a population growth unlike any seen before in human history. Isabel had started showing remarkable growth as well, practically on par with a human from the looks of things, and her grasp of not only English but all the inbound languages was swelling with their numbers._

_Chetan, on the other hand…_

_Alfred shivered despite the warmth, wondering if the near broken boy across and yet so far from him could have been him if he hadn't gotten so lucky. He could only hope his friend would bounce back from this, because if he didn't…)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short, and really mostly fluff stuff. Well, along with some sad stuff, but that's norm for this sort of thing probably. I have to honestly admit that I'm not certain that anything in here will be truly relevant in the second half, though I can certainly try if it happens to go that way. At the very least, I hope you enjoyed it and aren't too angry with the padding.


	19. Red Telephone

In the Canadian Imperial House, there was a private wing. In that private wing was an office and living chambers for the one mostly-immortal member of the government. And in that office was a phone; specifically, a red one.

This phone, unlike the rest of the network of phone lines that somewhat networked the world through extensive underground, undersea, and overland lines, was directly linked to one other place on the planet, no branching connections, little chance of interception.

Alexander Danson, upon returning to the capitol, almost immediately made his way to said office and picked up said phone, knowing without a doubt that the man on the other end of the line was already waiting for him. Not out of any sort of precognition or advanced spying techniques, but simply because Zhang Jie was that much of a smug asshole.

The phone rang, once, twice, then clicked in the way that signified it had been picked up.

"Zhang."

"Danson."

Damn that bastard for not even having the decency to act surprised. "You have a lot to answer for."

The man on the other end of the line snort. "Really now? And what have I done to annoy you this week?"

"You know damn well what you did, you republican fuckass," Alex growled.

"Unless it's your smuggling ring I'm attempting to piece together before I tear it apart, I'm afraid you have me at a complete loss."

Though the words were sarcastic enough, the statement itself was enough to give the Canadian pause. "What smuggling ring?"

"That's part of what I'm trying to find out," The Chinese personification replied, all amusement drained from his voice. "Tell me, what exactly did you find out east."

"Like you don't know," Alex replied, lips pressed tightly before he finally offered, "Your missiles, eight in total, along with about a dozen crates of guns, ammunition, and blades."

"You got numbers on them?"

"...no, it looked like they were scraped off."

"That matches the inventory mixups we've been catching - they were repainted with the wrong numbers so we wouldn't notice them missing right away, mostly with half-rotted foodstuffs and moth-ridden fabric."

Alex raised a brow. "You're saying someone's stealing from under your nose?"

"Not anymore, they aren't, not unless they've got the guts to ignore the increased security in all of the major ports and airfields. And I wouldn't be surprised if you found a few things missing on your end once you took a look at your own stocks."

"I think we're somewhat more competent on that front than you are."

"Or maybe you just don't have as much to watch over."

Alex's gaze narrowed. "Is there a point to all this?"

"Surprisingly enough, I have some leads you might be interested in, along with some advise," China replied calmly. "Including some maps and notes that would be of interest to you."

"Oh really?"

"Let's just say I have a few ideas of where those missiles are going and that a second opinion might help narrow things down a bit."

The Canadian frowned, shifting in his seat as he thought over how likely this was to be a misdirection or a trap. "What sort of second opinion are we talking about here?"

"The sort where you bring all the information on your supply movements, I bring all the one on my supply movements, and together we figure out the most likely path from my place to yours and from there to whoever's behind this operation."

Alex tapped his finger against the table. "Where are we meeting, then?"

He could almost see the mirthless smile on his opponent's face. "The most obvious first stop for any overseas goods."

"Hawaii." It was the only completely independent territory between the two continents, thus an obvious turnover place for any goods that were to be unofficially trades between otherwise opposing forces. It was also, in hindsight, an obvious place to move less than legal goods around without any of the larger players noticing, simply because of its rather isolated and unassuming position on the world map.

Either Zhang was playing a very long game, or this was more serious than he thought.

"Four days."

"That works for me."

The call ended, Alex setting the phone back into its cradle gently before both his hands came to massage his forehead. Fuck his life sometimes.

~0~0~

_His friend hadn't spoken much for months, and considering how opinionated he'd been before, Alfred was understandably concerned. He knew that Chetan was suffering through the aftermath of a lost war and the compensation to the victor he was having to pay, but he was fairly certain that there was far more he was losing than some material goods and political liberties._

" _Hey," He whispered, hand pressed against the mirror as he stared at an unresponsive Chetan. The Native boy was leaning against a European-style bed, a wildly different affair from the plain sleeping mats he knew his friend was used to. The room itself was different too - smaller, perhaps a bit gloomier, with no personal goods to be seen - and Alfred could help but shudder in sympathy. "You gonna be alright?"_

_No reply. He tried again, trying not to raise his voice in case Isabel overheard. "Chetan-"_

_That got a response, the other boy raising his head so quickly Alfred thought he would injure his neck. "No, I didn't do anything, please-"_

" _It's just me, I promise, I'm sorry just please talk to me," Alfred replied, frightened of the terror that had marred his friend's face at the use of his own name, and wondered how often such things had happened in his own world._

_(He never wanted to see that expression on someone's face again, and especially not Chetan's.)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm hoping all of this is coherent, cause I'm a bit tired and I'm not gonna pretend that doesn't affect my writing. I'm almost done with this arc, and am honestly just planning on plowing through the rest of the chapters tonight so that I can toss them up over the week and move on to some other things. Even if they suck, I hope you enjoy, and feel free to ask questions if something I mentioned confuses you.
> 
> (I might not answer if they're spoilery, but otherwise I'll try to clarify my thoughts on stuff when I'm not so tired.)


	20. Scenic Route

"At least it was comfier than a cargo flight," Tommy commented as they off boarded their flight, stretching his arms up over his head for a moment before letting them drop to his sides. "Though I could've done without the kid crying in the back."

"That happens on flights sometimes," Alfred smiled sheepishly. "It's usually not too bad. Why compare it to cargo flights?"

"Because unless you live in Canada or China, you don't get people-only flights. Too expensive and not a ton of demand, so instead they just have a smaller storage room that people can use when they absolutely need a flight somewhere."

"What, no private planes?"

"Well obviously, but those are for important people, which certainly ain't me or mine."

"Ah," Alfred rubbed his neck. "Yeah, that'd be an issue. You've been on them, though?"

"When Alex needs me for something, sure."

The blond nodded, glancing to his friend. "Do you like flying?"

"Huh?" Tommy replied, glancing back before replying. "I'm alright with it, I guess, but I prefer travelling overland if I can manage it."

"Oh, train then, or by car?"

"Train?" The brunet raised a brow at his friend. "Only been on one once, and that was a while ago. Alex hasn't bothered spreading them down past the border except in like two cases, and those are usually too far north for me to bother with 'em."

"Sheesh, does he not let you have any form of mass transport or something?"

"Would _you_ give a bunch of people who don't like you a way to get together quickly?"

"Sure, I've seen them four times a year since the fifties," Alfred joked, grinning when the other snorted as he figured out the reference.

"Okay, point to you. Who's picking us up, anyways?"

"Benny. Remember him?"

Tommy snorted again. "How could I forget?"

"Yeah, well, I just need to check on a few things with him before I throw together the rest of my presentation, but after that we can explore the city a bit if you're up to it."

"You keep acting like I'm gonna freak out or something."

Alfred shook his head. "Just remembering the first time other Nations came by after long enough to really notice the differences. Better to be safe than sorry and all that."

Tommy hummed noncommittally, effectively ending the conversation at that point. By the time both had gotten their bags and had tracked down the State waiting for them, both Nations were more than eager to get out of the airport and hit the road.

"Took you two long enough," Benjamin complained as he led them to his car. "Take the scenic route?"

"Like you don't know how long the waits are for bags," Alfred shot back.

"Excuses, excuses," The State waved off, starting the car and pulling out almost the second everyone was seated. "Finally pulled together those numbers you wanted for the weather shifts along the coast. What're you planning on trying this time to get the Africans and South Americans on board?"

The blond Nation groaned, shaking his head. "If I knew that, I'd solved half the world's problems already."

While those two were busy debating world politics and economics, Tommy's gaze wandered out the window, watching the cars and people and buildings as they passed by. Though the buildings were different in style, the fact that nearly all of them were simple one or two story homes was enough to have him relaxing.

Sure, there were quite a few, and Alfred had said that around eight and a half million people lived throughout the city boundaries, but so far it seemed fairly normal. As the drive continued on, he started frowning, picking out more and more little things that were a bit much even for the high end cities he was familiar with.

There was a lot more glass being used, more than he was certain was stable, and the first building he saw that seemed to be nothing but had him staring until they'd passed by. Sure that was just a luxury of a smaller building and not something common here, right?

More of the not-skyscrapers slid past, along with one or two tall buildings that were a fair bit above the rest of the skyline. Apparently, though, this was still well outside the main city, and with a shake of his head he kicked back and waited to see what the hype was all about. When they passed over the bridge, he'd again been certain they'd arrived, looking upon the buildings with the assumption that this was the real deal.

No, apparently they had two bridges to go.

When they hit the city proper, he started to understand just what Alfred had been warning him about, considering almost all of the buildings they were passing were now a minimum of ten stories. Suddenly the visit to downtown was quite a bit more daunting than it had been before.

(Not that he was going to admit to it.)

~0~0~

" _Why are you still up?"_

" _Why are_ _ **you**_ _still up?"_

_Chetan - Thomas, according to 'Canada' now - managed a weak smile that did nothing to hide the bags under his eyes. "Can't sleep. You?"_

_Alfred shrugged, rubbing at his eyes. "Same. Might be coming down with a cold again - always seems to happen when I'm away from the east coast for too long."_

" _Maybe you're just homesick?" The other boy asked, though he didn't seem to believe it even as he said it._

" _Maybe," Alfred shrugged, though internally he doubted that mere homesickness would leave his guts coiling and threatening to shred apart at the slightest provocation. He hoped everything was okay back east, and mentally planned to get on the next ship home after he settled a few things with Isabel and California as a whole._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Benny, aka New York, is the other State OC that will see some use in the second half (though not to the degree of Virginia and Nation!OC-to-be-named). I'm also sorry the end of this chapter sucks, but I just wanted to get it done and like bluh its not quality and I just wanna be doooooooooone blah. At least looking through google maps street view to follow their path was fun if time consuming.
> 
> If you wanna follow it too, go to JFK airport, follow 678 up until you hit 25, then follow that all the way to Manhatten / Central Park. Ben lives in an apartment near the Metropolitan, while Al has a place near the American Museum of Natural History. I think I like the view of the area, personally.


	21. The Calm

"Okay, I take it back. Not even China has this many huge buildings."

Alfred laughed, enjoying the flow of the city and its people around him as he and Tommy walked around downtown. While he would always admit to being a country boy at heart, New York had that sort of fast paced tempo that he could and had easily gotten lost in before. "Well, there's not much room for people to build out, so they decided to keep building up instead."

"And they don't blow over? Or have the windows smashed? Or just topple the first time you get an earthquake or hurricane or whatever natural disaster passes through?"

"Nah, engineers figured all those things out ages ago, back when we were just starting to toss steel into everything. Even now they're coming up with ways to make even bigger buildings that're better for the environment and the people and everything."

Tommy shook his head. "Are all your cities like this?"

"It depends? I'm pretty sure the major ones have at least a few high rises, but there are some which have a height limit like DC." Alfred shrugged.

"No, I mean the people. Is it always so…"

"Loud? Busy?"

"Crowded. I thought you said eight million people lived in the city, and I figured we passed most of them on the way in."

"Oh," Alfred tilted his head, processing the statement, before it clicked. "No no, I meant eight and a half million in the city proper. The whole city, including suburbs and all that, is more like twenty million."

Tommy stopped abruptly; Alfred had nearly passed him before noting this and turning to see the absolute disbelief etched on his face. "What?"

"Twenty million?" The Native man asked. "You're telling me this one city has as many people as Alex has in his entire country?"

"Uh, I guess?" The blond frowned. "I don't exactly know how many people your side has, so…"

"Around two billion total, I think; I have forty million, Yaotl has maybe around fifteen million, and I know China has almost seven hundred million because Alex keeps complaining about it. As for the rest, I'm not really sure, but that's the last count I heard from him, so yeah."

"Huh." Alfred pressed a knuckle to his mouth, frowning as he tried to remember the numbers he'd last seen for the same places. "I know Matt has thirty million, Maria has a hundred thirty million, and I have just about three hundred fifty million. Only Yao and Nagendra have more than me, and they're at about… one point four and one point three billion people respectively?"

Tommy continued to stare, leaving his friend feeling somewhat uncomfortable. Sure, they'd had a rather huge population jump in the last century thanks to advances in medication and transportation and farming and everything, but it wasn't that big a deal, right?

"...and how many people are on this side total?"

"Seven point… four billion, I think? I'm not positive 'cause of census issues and everything, but it's around there."

"And your side can support that many people."

"Last I heard from science types, we can hit around ten billion and still be okay, though we're still maybe thirty years from that depending on how long it takes Africa to slow down on the kid making and stuff."

Tommy exhaled slowly. "Your side is seriously scary, you know that?"

"Huh?"

"Nevermind," The brunet shook his head, starting to walk again. "You were gonna show me this Empire building of yours?"

Alfred wondered what exactly his friend had meant for a brief moment before shoving it to the side, deciding he could worry about it that evening.

~0~0~

" _Well, I'm home," Alfred grinned, kicking his legs out from the bed he was resting on while looking over to the mirror._

" _You don't sound too excited about it," Chet- Thomas (and wow did the blond regret more than a few decisions made by his bosses along those lines) replied, most of his wounds healed over at this point. He was still flinching when someone passed by the door on his side, though, something the blond hadn't seen since his friend had been stuck with his England._

" _I'm happy to be back!" He protested, though it sounded weak even to him. "I'm just trying to get used to working with my boss and stuff again, since it's been a while and stuff."_

" _What about your states?"_

_Alfred hesitated, shaking his head after a bit. "They're busy with their own stuff right now, and I can't exactly tell them to do much if it doesn't have to do with taxes or war."_

" _They're still your family, aren't they? They could at least stop by to say hi now that you're back after, what, ten years?"_

_The blond pretended that same thought hadn't crossed his mind, smiling and shrugging helplessly. "I'm sure they'll be by when they can."_

_Somehow, he had a feeling his friend didn't believe him. (To be honest, not even he believed him.)_

_(Maybe it just had to do with whatever was making him feel sick. Ginny would know how to fix it, and then everything would be perfectly fine.)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hated this chapter SO FUCKING MUCH you do not even understand. I spent DAYS trying to make this work because I needed the buffer for the next two chapters to happen and I couldn't decide what the hell would even be worth being relevant in the second half. Fuck, even I don't know if this is relevant to the second half, but it's some headcanoning and questioning if I'm taking the right path with said headcanons and just. Ulgh.


	22. Before

Three days of research. Three days of having people subtly check through weapons and food supplies just on the off chance Zhang wasn't talking out of his ass.

Three days of staring at documents that said no, no his opponent had not in the least bit been joking about someone taking advantage of oversights in security and inventory to get stuff that shouldn't have been moved without his or his boss' permission moved. Holes that would be covered after this, of course, but the damage had already been done.

Four thousand crates. He almost refused to accept that someone had been able to smuggle four thousand crates worth of supplies from under his nose, carting them off through his own territory to places he could only guess at. Not quite enough munitions to start a war, but certainly enough to spark rebellions in the less developed parts of the world.

If he had still had doubts about his opponent, they were laid to rest with this damning evidence. Only an absolute idiot would have given away such a valuable operation, and the Chinese were not idiots no matter how much he outwardly chose to pretend otherwise. It was a relief, in a way, to know his first instincts about everything from the explosion onward had not been wrong so far, though it still begged the question of who would be crazy enough to do this to both world superpowers.

What had they hoped to get out of this?

Alex frowned further, going back through the documents to the earliest confirmed discrepancy and the related release forms that had moved them out of the country so easily. Whoever had done this had the same level of stealth and cunning as the person or people responsible for kidnapping Thomas-

But were they the same people? That thought bothered him, for the same reasons the idea of Zhang being behind all this had bothered him. Why give away the game? Had they noticed the Chinese catching wind of their plans and panicked, or were they finally showing their hand as a show of power, still in control even after they'd been partially foiled.

Maybe he and Zhang were already too late, and their current enemies were moving on to the next part of their plan.

He shook his head, rubbing at an eye and wishing he hadn't been stricken with another bout of insomnia just as all this had started to come to light. If this weren't so important, he'd have taken the medication needed to knock him out for the next half day already, but every minute he wasted now would only give up more of what advantage he could get at this point.

To his right side, a list of questions, notes, and anything he thought might be useful was growing distressingly long, reminding him of how little information he had to go on when he prided himself on his information network. On his other was a map, covering all supply movement paths out of the capitol and the other supply cities, along with the most probable destinations for any ships leaving his or America's ports.

(Speaking of the latter, he really needed to reinforce his current networks there. Even if those ports weren't the final destinations of any of his supplies, at least having an idea of where they were going next would make his life just a bit simpler.)

His shoulder stung. When he pressed his hand to it, it came away bloody, and his mind started to register the panic of his people in Vancouver as they desperately attempted to start putting out the warehouse fires that had sprung up in several places at the same time.

 _Fuck_ , there was no way this was a coincidence now, not with that sort of timing, and he leapt to his feet only to swear when his leg suddenly start screaming at him as well.

 _Halifax too?_ Ships were aflame, what crews were onboard struggling to get them away before they exploded and took more of the port with them.

He forced himself to stand straight, gritting his teeth against the ache in his thigh and shoulder as he mentally calculated where his efforts would be better served. Halifax was obviously closer to Quebec, but Vancouver was going to lose more to the fires unless someone got people in there to deal with the explosive materials inside.

His decision was made for him, tugboats coming around in Halifax to help drag the flaming ships out to open waters, where hopefully their damage would be kept to a minimum. With a mental grimace he turned to face west, destination in mind even as he made himself Walk the painful kilometers to his western coast.

Later, he could worry about being angry. Later, he could be reprimanded by his boss for disappearing halfway across the country without a word.

Right now, he had bigger concerns.

~0~0~

" _I don't get it!" Alfred paced restlessly, hands clasped behind his back in order to prevent their constant twitching and shaking. "When I left everyone was getting on okay, but now it feels like it did during the Revolution all over again!"_

" _Do you know why?" Che- Thom- no, Tommy, he decided, because at least it was a little less distant, asked._

" _No, because none of them will talk to me!" The blond closed his eyes, breathing sharp. "And it feels like most of them are glaring at me like it's my fault I don't know what's wrong. I just - they've never been this angry with each other or with me before…"_

_His friend pressed a hand to the glass, expression sympathetic. "Maybe you can get them together, talk them down from something rash. They're your family, right? They at least have to listen."_

" _Yeah, maybe," Alfred replied dully, gaze sinking to the floor. "Not like there's anything else I can do."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> update two of three for today, just to get it over with. This is far outside the notes I had planned but the original wasn't going to work with next chapter at all so I had to improvise. Luckily the quality of this fic is already low enough that more shit like this is barely noticeable comparatively. And to think I still don't have the notes for the second arc done!
> 
> Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeshit.


	23. The Storm

Tommy stumbled with a gasp, clutching his sides in a desperate attempt to cover whatever had suddenly stabbed through him like a bullet. A moment's daze shock had him realize it wasn't a physical wound, but a reactive one.

Something had happened back home. Something bad enough that even the mental muffling hadn't dulled the effect.

"Alfred, we need to get back to your apartment now."

The blond, to his credit, didn't even hesitate, looping an arm under the shorter man's shoulders to better help him limp/walk his way out of the park they'd been relaxing in. "What's happening? Is it your people?"

"More explosions. Ports, I think," Tommy winced, hoping the blood starting to drip wasn't noticeable to the people around him, because the last thing he wanted was unneeded attention. "I bet it's the same fuckers who made the plane explode."

He glanced over in time to catch the tightness of his friend's expression before it was shoved back down. The blond then asked, "What're you planning on doing about it?"

"Obviously I'm going back."

Alfred hit the elevator button, closing the doors before turning to his friend. "I don't even know how I did it the first time - what if you can't?"

"Would you sit back and do nothing if you were in my shoes?" The brunet asked instead.

"Of course not," The blond replied instantly, shaking his head in defeat. "Still-"

"I've been thinking about it, and something you mentioned stuck in my head," Tommy interrupted. "You said something about needing to get through, didn't you?"

Alfred frowned, thinking back to that horrid day. "I… yeah, and… wait, you don't think-"

"It's worth a shot, and makes about as much sense as any of the rest of this bullshit mirror magic does." The doors opened, Alfred letting go of his friend for long enough to scramble for his keys and open the lock. Tommy grit his teeth and marched forward, only to stumble again at the doorway to the bedroom.

"Are you sure you can handle this?" The euro-American asked again, frowning as he followed. "I was drained for days, and I wasn't the one injured at the time."

"I only need enough time to make sure shit isn't gonna get worse, then I can pass out for a week for all I care."

Tommy shoved his hand against the large mirror, willing it to shift or give way or something so that he could help, tears starting to well when nothing seemed to happen. "Fuck, fuck fuck, why isn't anything happening?"

His friend, who had remained silent throughout, finally stepped forward to rest a hand on his own. "Tommy-"

"No, I can't do nothing!" He yelled, breathing ragged as he resisted the urge to full out cry. "My people, they need me-"

The glass shuddered under his fingers, and for a brief moment he wondered what had happened before turning back to see the image shift from their own faces to his own bedroom, glass and long dried blood still present on the rug. He didn't even hesitate, shoving himself through with a shudder at the cold before breathing in deeply, feeling the world around him sing like it'd been waiting for this moment.

He shook his head, deciding he could kiss the ground or something later, and focused on the closest of the places currently burning. His feet moved, and then the rest, and he was several hundred miles away and tasting sea salt and smoke.

If he'd thought about it, he'd have probably noticed that the mirror hadn't closed behind him.

(Someone else had, though, and was taking advantage of it.)

(And in the third location, hundreds of miles away, a young red haired woman paused with a frown, looking to the north like something was suddenly missing.

"Alfred, you idiot," she muttered, fingers tightening against the old paper in her hands. "Please tell me you didn't just do what I think you just did.

Naturally, she got no answer, not that she had expected one.)

~0~0~

" _Hey, Tommy?"_

" _Yeah, Al?"_

" _...I'm scared."_

" _About what?"_

" _...about dying."_

" _You aren't going to die. I pulled through, and so can you."_

" _Your people weren't going to war with each other."_

" _...no, they weren't."_

" _...I hope things get better for you one day."_

" _C'mon, you know you'll be there to see it."_

" _Mmm…"_

" _...please don't die. Please…"_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that, we're on a cliffhanger for the next couple of weeks while I finish up Stargate and cry over college and essays and other IRL bullshit. I'm sorry if these last couple of chapters aren't up to standard, but I was really pissed off and basically decided to flip a table and just write whatever got the plot progressed. I'm not super happy, but at least I'm done for now, which means I can relax for all of ten minutes before getting over to my calc homework.
> 
> Leave thoughts on what you think of characters, plot, headcanons, whatever. I'd also like to know what you think might happen in the second half, what you might like to see, and whether I'm still making any sort of sense with all this mess.


	24. Act To Start With

Alfred shuddered as he passed through the mirror again, the second (or was it third?) time no easier on him than the first. Without him panicking over an injured friend, however, he had much more time to notice the state of the room, including what he'd left behind in his unthinking haste.

His nose crinkled at the dried blood, stepping around it gingerly as he looked about the rest of the room. He'd seen glimpses and pieces of it over the centuries, not having changed much despite moving houses every decade or so, but there was a remarkable difference between a photograph and the actual thing.

For one, the room he'd seen as plain actually had plenty of small decorations, things that could be set down anywhere and quickly gathered up in anticipation of a move. Many of them were a bit dusty, and on a whim he picked up one of the small bear statues, rubbing off some of the dust while looking it over. Had Tommy mentioned when he'd gotten this? Alfred thought it might have been a gift from a long dead friend, but he couldn't remember off the top of his head.

Shaking his head at how easily he'd gotten distracted, he set the bear back down and left the room, for once able to truly see the sort of place his friend lived in. Much like the bedroom, the hallway didn't have a ton of decorations, but what was there certainly seemed to be personal, unlike Alfred's own house which tended to display 'political' gifts from the other Nations when he knew he'd have visitors over.

Peeking into the kitchen gave him his first surprise - while there was a counter and sink to prepare food on, there were no signs of the modern electronics he'd thought he'd see. There was electricity - a different outlet was still an obvious outlet - but the oven and stove both used wood, and a removable grill was installed in what seemed to be the fireplace.

Then again, expecting his friend to have all the same luxuries of modern life had probably been a bit shortsighted in hindsight. Then again, there were quite a few things about Tommy's life that he'd simply never thought to ask about, which compared to how much he felt he blabbed about his own homeland made him feel more than a bit ignorant.

(Tommy would have called him out on it if he was really bothered by it, though, right?)

Alfred shook his head as he moved past the kitchen doorway, wishing Tommy were still here so he wouldn't feel quite so much like an unwanted intruder. Not that his friend was likely to be back anytime soon - probably not for days, depending on how bad things were and how much the movement between universes and the Jumping around took out of him-

The blond lurched, exhaling sharply as the already stretched connection muffled further, realizing any thought of heading back was now out of the question. And, considering it'd taken the nearby presence of both of them to open it both times so far, he wasn't positive he could get back home until Tommy thought to come back and check on things.

Taking several deep breaths and shaking himself out, he straightened himself out and decided that, if he was stuck here anyways, he was going to figure out what he could about this place and deal with everyone who wanted to yell at him for being foolhardy later.

(Ginny, for one, was more than likely going to kill him. Hopefully she'd also keep things under wraps while he was gone.)

The door outside was right in front of him, the last portal to an entirely different world from the one he was familiar with. If he wanted to avoid sticking out, he was going to have to pick up on local history and customs quickly, and be prepared to stay on the move if it seemed necessary. He had no local money, no passport or ID or whatever else might be necessary, and he had no political leeway since he'd only arrived a few minutes ago.

Alfred let himself smile lightly. It was almost an infiltration mission into Soviet territory, something he was much more familiar with, and it wasn't long enough ago to forget how to be overlooked. Though he didn't want to think of his own friend's land as potentially hostile, it was better to play things safe, at least for now.

With at least a basic plan of action at hand, the de-localized superpower pushed open the door, heading out into a world that was probably not prepared for him.

~0~0~0~

_Though Chetan - no, Thomas, he had to think of himself that way now or else -_

_Though Tommy had recently been granted a bit more leeway in his movements around the Canadian mansion he was being 'hosted' in, much of his time not eating or sleeping was spent pacing his room restlessly, waiting for some sort of call or response from the friend he hadn't seen in nearly a year now._

_Why was it that just when one side was entering a tentative peace, the other was dragged into a war that left them both out of contact for months or years? Why was it that, just when he was rebounding somewhat from the aftermath of his failed revolution, his main support had vanished from underneath him?_

_He was sick of fighting, sick of shedding blood for causes that failed and regimes that didn't deserve it. He was also sick of the fact that, unless a miracle happened, he was never going to be free of such things while humans still strived to fight each other over anything and everything._

_The brunet swallowed, a hand lingering briefly on the mirror, before he shook his head sharply and turned away, leaving the room as quickly as he could without looking like he was running away again._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, down to the grind to finish this and Stargate up this month. I'll be updating everyday hopefully, while Stargate will update every other day. I'll admit, I've been wishy washy about getting back to this fic, but the sooner I get it done, the sooner I can move on to other projects I'm more enthused about, so... yeah.


	25. Calling In Favors

Sometimes Ginevra Jameson wondered where she'd gone wrong with Alfred, mostly when he'd just given her a new headache that would take far more than a potion or aspirin to deal with. He could be so impulsive sometimes, and not always for the better.

Then again, she had to admit many of the States were the same at the heart of it all. It was, after all, what had gotten them all to go along with the Revolution in the first place, well before any of them had quite thought about how to do the whole self-governing thing.

And the getting along thing.

(Not even she had escaped the habit of leaping before thinking entirely, no matter what she'd convinced the others at this point. If anyone realized that…)

Still, she'd tried to instill some habit of thoughtfulness before making important decisions, one he'd thankfully made habit of more often than not lately. The only downside was that it made the moments where she instantly knew he hadn't done so all the more glaring and frustrating, even if it was a relatively minor offence overall.

This scenario, however, was about as far from 'minor' as one could get - and he'd almost definitely gotten at least one other State involved, which was one more than necessary in her mind. Worse, it was one of the gossips, and one of the two who would more than likely make things worse should they catch wind of what was going on. The only way to crowd control this was to get to him first, and hopefully divert his train of thought down a less destructive line of thinking.

Hence why she was calling his cell phone less than five minutes after Alfred had almost completely vanished from her senses, most of that time taken up in extracting herself from her secondary (aka magic) study and tracking down her phone.

He picked up on the third ring, speaking before she even had a chance to open her mouth.

"Ginny, please tell me Tony's just fucking with us again by kidnapping Al and that friend of his."

He didn't sound like he believed it, which was only fair since Tony at least left a message in Ben's carpet when he was doing such things. Since it was too late to pull a cover-up, it was time for the next best thing, which was telling the Truth, which differed from the truth in that it said just enough to let someone decide for themselves what was going on. If they came to the wrong conclusion… well, it could easily be cleared up later, if needed.

(Incidentally, the others States were convinced she knew a lot more about what they did than she actually did. How they reached that conclusion, she would never know.)

"Let's just say Alfred and his friend have gotten caught up in some old magic, and that it's almost definitely Arthur's fault for being negligent."

Ben made a noise of disgust in the back of his throat. "Fuckin' Brit mess up another summoning spell or something?"

Ginny sighed. "I don't know exactly - that's what I've been trying to find out since I found out from Alfred what Arthur'd done."

"And?"

"Nothing in my books, or in the book in his attic that haven't made their way to my place for whatever reason. I'm thinking it's Old Magic."

The other state swore under his breath in Dutch before speaking up again. "Does that mean we're actually going to have to get him to fix this?"

Ginny snorted at the concept. "I'd rather not risk having him mess things up further if at all possible. I was thinking, since the next World Meeting's hosted here anyways, if it'd be possible for you to cover for me while I go over there and look through his things."

There was a longer pause before Ben spoke up. "Wait, you're asking me to help you break into England's house. And potentially steal some of his spellbooks."

"No, I can break in on my own just fine," She corrected. "You just need to keep him from checking in at home and finding out what I'm up to. Tell him I'm visiting Uncle Alasdair or something - I get on well enough with him for it to be believable."

"...or maybe we could just call Alasdair and have him help you find the spellbook in question, since it's Old Magic and he'd be more familiar with it. Not to mention he probably knows where England stores everything."

Damn, why hadn't she thought about that in the first place? "I'll handle that then - I can explain the scenario to him and he can be waiting by the time I land."

"Just try and fix this before people start blaming me for Al going hooky on all of us."

"Of course."

Ginny ended the call and exhaled, rubbing the bridge of her nose with her free hand. This had been so much easier just this morning.

~0~0~

" _What are you making?"_

_Tommy jolted in his seat, barely keeping himself from looking up at the Canadian now towering over him. "Cultural thing."_

_He could feel Canada's unimpressed gaze on his back, and resisted the urge to shake. "I thought I said to leave that sort of thing to your free time."_

" _Chores 're done already, it is my free time," He retorted, returning carefully to his wood carving. "Was there anything else you needed?"_

_There was no reply for a moment, and Tommy almost thought he had left before he finally deigned to respond. "What is that thing?"_

" _It's an eagle. Or it will be, eventually," Tommy shrugged lightly, figuring that the other wouldn't care for the full details._

_He was proved right when all he got in reply with a noncommittal hum and the sound of boots walking away from the side room he'd taken over for his project. Shaking his head, he turned back to his carving, carefully watching out another curve to the wide wings of Misigi._

_After all, she had quite a distance to fly for the message he was going to etch into her base._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A fast question while I'm thinking about it: Is there anything you particularly like or dislike about state OCs? I know I've been using them more, and I know some of you have proven unhappy with the decision, but I'm really trying to make them more than the one-dimensional messes a lot of other people tend to make them into.
> 
> I admit, most of my knowledge and 'sense' for Ginny (Virginia) and Ben (New York) are from my New Jersey friend, who in living nearby has a better feel for what they'd be like and their histories. I can't promise they won't show up in fics outside of the State drabbles, because several longer stories I have in mind necessitate their involvement, so knowing what's good or bad about them now might help me adjust things for those projects.


	26. Call Back

Almost a dozen ports had been hit all at once along the North American coasts, two of which had been his, another three Mexico's. He still wasn't positive of the total damages yet, nor what had definitely been lost versus 'lost' in the panicked attempts to bring the fires under control.

About the only thing that had convinced him not to storm Zeong's place as soon as everything had come under some sort of control was the fact that four Chinese ports had been hit at nearly the same time, and as much of a tricky bastard he was, Alex doubted he'd deliberately sabotage himself just to keep up an image. But, of course, it'd delayed their meeting by several days while they tried to figure out what happened and decide whether it was relevant to their other issue.

What neither was willing to ask over the phone, of course, was whether the fires had been a coincidence, or a response.

A hasty knock on the door broke him from his current train of thought, and even knowing it had to be important if they were interrupting him now, he couldn't keep all of the scowl out of his expression as he looked up to see who it was. "Yeah?"

"Uhm, there's a phone call for you, sir," The intern replied nervously, already edging himself back out."

"So? I said I'm not taking calls unless they're from the emperor or the ops chief."

"Ah, he gave the clearance code Tormine Silver Indigo Turquoise Serpentine Serpentine, sir."

Alex froze, knowing only one code that started off that way. "Patch it through right now."

"Already being done, sir."

He grabbed for the black phone, putting the receiver to his ear just as the connection was made. "Where the fuck have you been?"

"Gee, it's nice to hear from you too, how've you been lately?"

" _Thomas._ "

A deep sigh came from the other end of the line. "A friend got me out of the way so I could recover. Only recently got over the worst of it, just in time to scramble to help at Akamich."

"Is that where you are now?" The Canadian asked, already calling over someone else to get him a plane there immediately or so help him he'd fire their ass-

"I was planning on getting back to my place, but I can sit tight for a couple hours. 'Sides, there's some stuff you might wanna see."

"I already have a good idea of what that'll be," Alex replied, shaking his head before continuing. "Just stay there, and try to get whatever you can from the locals - who they might've seen, who was new to town-"

"I'm already in the middle of that, give me some credit," Tommy shot back, scowl audible in his voice. "And if I get back to it now, I might even be done before you get here."

"You'd better be," The empire replied, closing off the call and immediately setting it in its cradle, pushing himself from his seat as he bellowed, "Everything had better be ready in the next ten minutes!"

He was going to kill Tommy for disappearing so suddenly, while making it seem like he'd been kidnapped by hostiles. He'd then kill him again after getting everything he'd learned since the incident and about this friend of his.

Then, depending on whether this friend of his was human or not (and whether they'd rightly fled in fear of their lives), he might or might not kill them as well. Just for being absolute idiots who failed to realize that everything would have been handled by himself if they'd left well enough alone!

~0~0~

" _Tommy?"_

_The brunet jumped from where he'd been leaning against the bed, head swiveling towards the mirror as he wondered whether he'd actually heard that or if it was his mind playing tricks on him again. But no, there was a blond boy in the mirror, reflecting someplace that definitely wasn't this room, and he dropped the book he'd been reading to scramble over to it. "Alfred?"_

_His Euro-American friend looked god-awful, but then again, he'd just crawled out of a civil war with at least most of his mental facilities intact, so looks were secondary for the moment. "Sorry for disappearing."_

" _You're sorry- Alfred, I was starting to think you were dead!"_

_The blond grimaced, hand moving towards his waist before dropping again. "As far as I've been told, I was close to death a few times, but the Confederacy lost, so… I'll be okay, I think."_

_He didn't look like he believed it, but then again, he had no reason to. "What do you remember?"_

_For a minute he'd worried he'd pushed too far, drawing up memories he would rather bury for a while, but Alfred eventually sighed and slumped against the glass, lips twisted into a grimace. "Right now? Barely anything. Sue and Ben say they should come back once reconstruction is underway, but I don't know how long that'll take."_

" _But you remembered me." Tommy felt oddly touched by the sentiment._

" _Mostly, I think." Alfred's gaze shifted away, looking almost longing for a moment before turning back to his friend. "Can you help me with the rest?"_

" _I'll do what I can."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for missing a few days, the weekend was really busy so I only had time to write update stuff on Monday. Trying to get in a bit more world building, while keeping track of things I've already mentioned in other chapters ages ago. Truthfully looking more forward to Alfred's bits of the story, but the rest of this is sort of important to make sense of everything in the long run. Ah well.


End file.
